Aryanisation Of India

THE

ARYANISATION OF INDIA

BY

Nripendra Kumar Dutt, m. a.

ProfcMor of History, HoosUy GovernmcBt CoIIefe

CALCUTTA

1925

Af .'. ..

C«ii

I'i.iili:

PablitW bjr the Aothor
Printed by— N. K. Bnsu
the KRISHNA PRINTING WORKS
13, Maheadn Bom Lane. Sbaabaaar,
CALCUTTA

To

The sacred memory of my mother,
Niroda Sundari Dutt

PREFACE

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For the period following the rise of Btiddhjsni in the sixth
century B, C. Pr. Vin‘.<‘iU A. Smith has prepared in fiis
Early History of India a lir^hwa), which lias placed the whole
world of travellers in the field of ancient Indian history under
a deep debt of gratitude. Unfortunately, for the pre-Buddhist
period no such book has yet been published, which gives us an
’'outline of the political history })aseJ on a workable chronological
framework, without which no history of art, religion, or society,
however immense the materials available, can be definitely
given shape to, like flesh and blood without a skeleton. The
result is that though no other period of Indian history has attracted
the attention of so many scholars, and has such an immense
mass of literature written upon it as the A'edic period, it yet
remains one of the most bewildering periods of human history,
the breeding ground of wildest theories ' and fantastic calculations.
Besides, tradition as recorded in religious literature being
the principal source of history for the period in question, preju-
dices run strong among the writers on the subjixt, between
those who evaggerate the value of tradition and those who
cannot an> thing of ancient India except in lelation to,

or by the standard of, Greek history.

The greatest btiuvibling-biock in the way of a historian of this
period is the ^didiculty of harmonuing the Vedic with Pauranic
tradition regarding the order i>f kings and succession of events.
It has been the practice of scholars generally to accept only the
Vedic and reject the Pauranic tradition, and to declare that the
Veda “stands quite by itself, high up on an isolated peak of
remote antiquity.” A notable exception is Mr, F. E. Pargiter,
who, however, goes to the other extreme by attaching too much
importance to Pauranic writings and unduly depreciating Vedic
tradition. The work so far done is only preliminary, and arduous
labours of scholars in collaboration are needed to carefully sift
and co-relate the materials obtained from both the sources. For
farther light on the subject we must await the researches of

2

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

together within the same enclosures, nay, under
the same roof,” and that that place was Central
Asia from where “the ancestors of the Indians
and Persians started for the South, and the
leaders of the Greek, Roman, Celtic, Teutonic,
and Slavonic colonies marched towards the
shores of Europe.” Since then iconoclastic
critics have appeared, and with the aid of the
sciences of Comparative Ethnology and Archceo-
logy have tried to tear to pieces the conclusions
of Comparative Philology and to disprove the
assumption of the philologists that a relation-
ship of language implies relationship of blood.
One of the most bitter critics of the Aryan
Theory was Oppert, according to whom, “there
are Aryan languages but there is no Aryan
race.” During the fourth quarter of the last
century the pendulum continued swinging rapidly
from one extreme to the other. To-day, how-
ever, though the noise of conflict is still heard,
the dust raised by the clash of combatants has
somewhat subsided, and the atmosphere has
become sufficiently clear to enable one to take
a dispassionate view of the whole thing.

Philologists since the times of Sir William
Jones and Bopp have noticed that there is a
great affinity between the Sanskrit,
(^^ative Iranian, Armenian, Slavonic, Lettic,
Greek, Latin, Celtic, and Teutonic
languages, and that this affinity is not due

THE ARYANS

3

to accident, or temporary contact, or mutua
borrowing. Among the various members of
this group of languages we find words with
common roots for father, mother, brother, sister,
daughter, son, father-in-law, and some other
words denoting family relationship ; cow, horse,
dog, waggon, yoke, door, mead, copper, etc. ;
numerals up to ten and hundred ; pronouns
like me, thou, he ; verbs like to be, eat, lick,
stay, sew ; particles like inter, pra, pari. “It
is,” as Muir says, “precisely those words and
forms which are the most primitive, the most
fundamental, the most essential parts of each
language which they have in common.” Again
this affinity is observed not only in simple words
but in many grammatical rules, such as declen-
sion of nouns and conjugation of verbs. Hom-
mel and Delitzsch seek to establish primitive
relations between the Aryan and Semitic lan-
guagef by identifying several Semitic roots
with Aryan. But a few such words, as Taylor
observes, “are not enough to base a theory on ;
the phonetic resemblances may be accidental,
or the words may be very early loan words
due to Phoenician commerce. ..But even if
these identifications be accepted, it would
not suffice, as it would be also necessary to
show an agreement of grammatical formative
elements f and it is universally admitted
that in grammatical structure the Semitic

4

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

and Aryan languages differ fundamentally.”
Hence it is seen that no fundamental resem-
blance can be traced between any language
of this group and the other languages of the
world, such as Chinese, Arabic, Negro, Austra-
lian. From these the philologists have come
to the conclusion that the ancestors of most
of the modern European nations, the Persians,
and the Indians (non-Dravidian) at one time
must have lived together and spoken one lan-
guage from which their modern languages are
all descended. The name Aryan is often given
to this family of nations, as the ancient Persians
called themselves by that name, and the authors
of the Rigvedic hymns are believed to have
used that name to distinguish themselves from
the aborigines. But as it is not known to have
been used by the European members of the
family, the word is sometimes used in a narrow
sense to denote the Persian and Indian*bran-
ches only, while words like Indo-European and
Indo-German (taking the two extreme members
of the group) have been coined to denote the
whole family.

The philological arguments alone are not
sufficient to establish the identity of races. The
well-known anthropologist Broca points out that
"races have frequently within the historic period
changed their language without having apparent-
ly changed the race or type. The Belgians, for

THE ARYANS

5

instance, speak a neo-Latin language, but of all
races who have mingled their blood with that
of the autochthones of Belgium it would be
difficult to find one which has left less trace
than the people of Rome.” Another good ins-
tance is the imposition of a neo-Latin dialect on
a vast American Indian population in more re-
cent times. Still comparative philology has some
value if its deductions are supported by other
evidences. Besides, it is generally seen that the
conquerors, if they are civilized, impose their
language on the conquered, whether it is in
Belgium or in South America. The analogy
proves our point that some bands of Aryans
migrated to Europe, and conquering andn^gling
with the aboriginal peoples Aryanised them as
their brethren did the Dravidians in India. It is
hopeless to look for a pure Aryan race in the
modern world.

The philological evidences which seek to
establish the relationship between
"^the Indians, the Persians, and the
Europeans are supported to a
certain extent by the coincidences which are
observed in the mythologies of the Vedas, the
earliest book of the Indians, and those of the
Zend Avesta of Persia, and also, though in a
smaller degree, in the mythologies of the ancient
European nations. Scholars like Kuhn and Max
Muller have identified the Erinys of the Greeks

4

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

and Aryan languages differ fundamentally.”
Hence it is seen that no fundamental resem-
blance can be traced between any language
of this group and the other languages of the
world, such as Chinese, Arabic, Negro, Austra-
lian. From these the philologists have come
to the conclusion that the ancestors of most
of the modern European nations, the Persians,
and the Indians (non-Dravidian) at one time
must have lived together and spoken one lan-
guage from which their modern languages are
all descended. The name Aryan is often given
to this family of nations, as the ancient Persians
called themselves by that name, and the authors
of the Rigvedic hymns are believed to have
used that name to distinguish themselves from
the aborigines. But as it is not known to have
been used by the European members of the
family, the word is sometimes used in a narrow
sense to denote the Persian and Indian'bran-
ches only, while words like Indo-European and
Indo-German (taking the two extreme members
of the group) have been coined to denote the
whole family.

The philological arguments alone are not
sufficient to establish the identity of races. The
well-known anthropologist Broca points out that
“races have frequently within the historic period
changed their language without having apparent-
ly changed the race or type. The Belgians, for

THE ARYANS

5

instance, speak a neo-Latin language, but of all
races who have mingled their blood with that
of the autochthones of Belgium it would be
difEcult to find one which has left less trace
than the people of Rome.” Another good ins-
tance is the imposition of a neo-Latin dialect on
a vast American Indian population in more re-
cent times. Still comparative philology has some
value if its deductions are supported by other
evidences. Besides, it is generally seen that the
conquerors, if they are civilized, impose their
language on the conquered, whether it is in
Belgium or in South America. The analogy
proves our point that some bands of Aryans
migrated to Europe, and conquering and mangling
with the aboriginal peoples Aryanised them as
their brethren did the Dravidians in India. It is
hopeless to look for a pure Aryan race in the
modern world.

The philological evidences which seek to
establish the relationship between
SS^i*!***™ “^the Indians, the Persians, and the
Europeans are supported to a
certain extent by the coincidences which are
observed in the mythologies of the Vedas, the
earliest book of the Indians, and those of the
Zend Avesta of Persia, and also, though in a
smaller degree, in the mythologies of the ancient
European nations. Scholars like Kuhn and Max
Muller have identified the Erinys of the Greeks

6

THE ARYAN ISATION OF INDIA

with the Saranyu of the Vedas, the Centaurs
with the Gandharvas, Helios and Sol with
Surjya, Eos with Ushas, Uranus with Varuna,

Zeus with Dyaus, Jupiter with Dyaus pitar, the
Slavonic Bogu with Bhaga, and Perkunus or
Perunu with the Vedic Parjanya. The commu-
nity of mythologies between the Indians and the
Iranians is more strongly marked. Both had in
their mythologies Yama, Trita, Mitra, Vayu,

Sarva, Indra, Vitrahan, Nasatyas, Asura, etc.,
while both made Soma offerings in yajnas or
sacrifices, and had common names for priests - as
hotri and atharvan.

There are some scholars who express doubts
about the inheritance of any common mytholo-
gical traditions by the Aryan-speaking nations
because of the fewness of resemblances and
of the discrepancies of mythologies even when
there are resemblances of names. But they do
not seem to take into account the long centuries
which separate the Rigvedic hymns from the ^

Greek, Latin, andTeutonic literatures €tom which
we draw our materials, and still more, which
separate these all from the proto- Aryan period. i

Again, mythological and theological concep-
tions are apt to change under external influences
more quickly and radically than languages.

How many ancient religious traditions are to
be found in Christian Italy, Mahomedan Persia,
or Buddhist Ceylon ? We can easily imagine

THE ARYANS

7

how the mythologies of the semi-barbarous
Aryan immigrants into Europe were influenced
through contact with the aborigines on one
hand and the Phoenician culture bearers on
the other. Professor Rhys remarks in his
Hibbert Lectures — “If the Aryans had attained

to the idea of so transcendent a god there

would be difficulty in understanding how, as
the Dyaus of Sanskrit literature, he should
have become comparatively a lay figure, that
as Tiu he should have been superseded by
Woden and Thor among the Teutons, and that
among the Gauls his pre-eminence should at
anytime have been threatened by a Mercury.’
The difficulty, however, disappears if we
remember that considerable changes in mytho-
logy can take place among the same people
living under diiferent physical conditions. Thus,
for instance, the Indians living in tropical
climate would welcome the clouds and naturally
give pre-eminence to the cloud god, while the
people of North Europe would favour the
sun god. The action of time and foreign
influences also in modifying the mythologies
of a people can be observed in India and Egypt, I
where the great gods of the early Indo-Aryans
and Egyptians could not maintain their pre-emi-
nence and sometimes even their existence iri
later times, and new gods and beliefs arose
from time to time, sometimes quite in antagonism

a

THE ARVANrSATION OF INTDIA

to the old ones. In India Varuna and then
Indra appropriated many of the attributes
of the heaven god Dyaus, and in later times
were themselves cast into the shade by Vishnu
and Siva. The wonder is not the fewness
of mythological resemblances between the
nations of Europe and India, but that, inspite
of centuries of separation and loss of contact
before the days of Darius and Alexander, of the
great differences in physical conditions and
environments in which the different branches
lived, and of the foreign cultural influences to
which these semi-barbarous communities were
exposed, such important resemblances can still
be detected.

Ethnologists state that inspite of the inter-
mixture of races which has gone on more or less
at all times, and the tendency of individuals to
vary under the effects of climate
^Sinoio^* and environment, there has always
been a tendency to revert to the
primitive types, viz, (i) the Caucasian, with
usually a fair skin, soft, straight or wavy hair,
full grown beard, long or broad headform,
narrow face, and well-shaped nose ; (2) the
Mongolian, with yellow or reddish complexion,
coarse straight hair, scanty or no beard, broad
head, broad and flat face with high cheek-bones,
small and depressed nose, and slanting eyes; (3)
the Ethiopian or Negroid, with black complexion.

THE ARYANS

9

black frizzly hair, long head, broad and flat
nose, moderate beard, thick lips, large teeth, and
long forearm. The Caucasians again are gener-
ally subdivided into (a) Indo-Germansor Aryans,
(b) Semites, (c) Hamites or Berbers. Peschel
and many other ethnologists are agreed by ex-
amining the head-form, nose, hair, skin, and other
physical features of the Hindus (non-Dravidian)
that they in common with the Persians and the
Europeans belong to the Indo-Germanic group.
This hypothesis of community of blood between
the Indians and the Europeans is supported
by evidences from the Vedas and the Epics,
where the typical Aryan is described as a tall,
generally fair-complexioned person, with narrow,
prominent nose, good hair, large eyes, broad
shoulders, and slim waist, features which even
to-day are regarded in India as constituting an
ideal physique.

In Europe three different types have been
clearly distinguished — (i) the Nordic or
Teutonic, All, fair, dolichocephalic or long-
headed, (2) the Alpine or Celto-Slav, fair,
both short and tall, brachycephalic or broad-
headed, (3) the Mediterranean, short, dark,
dolichocephalic. Great acrimony is displayed in
the discussion about the relationship of each of
these types with the original Aryan stock, and is
made more bitter by the nationa I jealousy between
the German and the French, the German
2

10

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

scholars like Posche, Penka, and Hehn generally
claiming direct descent for the Teuton from
the original stock and tracing the brachycepha-
lic Celt to Turanian or Mongolian origin, while
the Gallic scholars like Chavee, De Mortillet,
and Ujfalvy representing the primitive Aryans
as brachycepbalic and assigning African origin
to the dolichocephalic Teuton. The tendency,
however, of modern scholars, as Feist in Ger-
many and de Michelis in France, is to find a
solution to this knotty problem by assuming
that the primitive Aryans were not a pure
race, but a mixture of different types, both
dolichocephalic and brachycephalic, who in
prehistoric times were welded together into a
linguistic and cultural unity, as the present
English have been formed from Iberians, Celts,
and Teutons. Inspite of such obvious physical
differences, the Indo-Germans can be grouped
together in a single division because we recog-
nise a common racial stamp in the facial
expression, the shape of the nose, tne structure
of the hair, partly also the bodily proportions,
in all of which points they agree more with
each other than with the other divisions.

From a comparative study of their social
institutions it is found that there
Gmi^atire are many customary laws and
social rules peculiarly common to
the Hindus and the ancient Europeans, which

THE ARYANS

f I

raises a strong supposition, irrespective of
other considerations, that they had a common
origin. “It does not appear to me a hazardous
proposition that the Indian and the ancient
European systems of enjoyment and tillage
by men grouped in village communities are in

all essential particulars identical. There

is the arable mark divided into separate lots
but cultivated according to minute customary

rules binding on all. There is the waste or

common land, out of which the arable mark
has been cut, enjoyed as pasture by all the
community pro-indivisio. There is the village,
consisting of habitatons each ruled by a des-
potic pater familias. And there is constantly
a council of government to determine disputes
as to custom.” (Maine, Village Communities).
Havell also notices that “the description of
the old English village communities in Schles-
wig and Jutland given by a well-known historian
(J. R. Green), and the characteristics ascribed
to the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon race,
correspond closely with what is known of the
early Aryan settlements in India from their
literary records and from traditional evidence.”
And the resemblance becomes more striking
when we compare them “with the more ancient
Dravidian communal system of India in which
mother instead of father was the head of the
family, hunting and robbing were the principal

12

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

means of subsistence instead of agriculture and
cattle farming, and civilization more mercantile
than agricultural.” According to Senart, even
in social organisation in which the Hindus with
their caste system differ most from the European
branches of the Aryan family there is a great
resemblance between the Hindu system and
those of the Greeks and the Romans in the
earlier stages of their national developments,
e.g. the gens, curia, tribe at Rome, family,
phratria in Greece, and family, gotra, caste in
India. Endogamous and hypergamous rights
were not unknown in ancient Greece and Rome,
The resemblance is greater between the Hindu
system and the ancient Iranian division of
society into four classes — priests, warriors,
cultivators, and artisans — especially when we
find that the rule of endogamy prevailed at
least among the highest class, the Athravans,
corresponding to the Brahmins of India.

“The offering of gifts to the gods in fire is
Indo-European, as is shown by the ^reement of
the Greeks, Romans, and Indians. Indo-Euro-
pean also is that part of the marriage ritual in
which the newly wedded couple walk round the
nuptial fire, the bridegroom presenting a burnt
offering and the bride an offering of grain ; for
among the Romans also the young pair walked
round the altar from left to right before offering
bread (far) in the fire. Indo-European, too.

THE ARYANS

13

must be the practice of scattering rice or grain
(as a symbol of fertility) over the bride and
bridegroom, as prescribed in the Sutras ; for it
is widely diflFused among peoples who cannot
have borrowed it. Still older is the Indian
ceremony of producing the sacrificial fire by
the friction of two pieces of wood. Similarly
the practice in the construction of the Indian
fire-altar of walling up in the lowest layer of
bricks the heads of five different victims, in-
cluding that of a man, goes back to an ancient
belief that a building can only be firmly erected
when a man or an animal is buried with its

foundations.” (Macdonell, Sanskrit literature).

If it be a fact that the ancestors of a large
section of the people of Europe, Persia, and
India at one time lived in
^*of'Ae place, spoke one language,

and possessed one culture,
the question that naturally arises is where that
original home of the Aryans was. The
orthodox I|jdian opinion is that India has ever
been the home of the Hindus, and that if the
Persians and the Europeans have been proved
to be related to the Hindus, presumably they
must have migrated from India. Apparently
this point of view seems to be correct because
it is in India that the earliest known Aryan
literature, the Vedas, was composed and exists,
and that the modem Hindu religion and social

14

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

structure are directly descended from the
Vedic institutions. This opinion gains additional
force when it is stated that nowhere in Indian
literature, not even in the Vedas, is there any
tradition recorded about any immigration from
abroad, such as exists among peoples who are
known to have migrated from one country
to another.

The current opinion among European
scholars is that India could not be the home

of the undivided Aryans, (i) “It is

In£a not tlie nowise probable that the migrations
ori^al home. , . ,

which have peopled so large a part

of the globe should have commenced at its

southern extremity, and have been constantly

directed from that point towards the north-west.

On the contrary, everything concurs to persuade

us that the colonies set out from a central

region in divergent directions.” (Schlegel,
Essais).

(2). “None of the phenomena of speech,
customs, or ideas observable amon^ the other
cognate nations indicate an Indian origin. Of
the countries which were anciently occupied
by the great Indo-Germanic family India was
the most peculiar, and differed the most widely
from the others, and it would be unaccountable
that no trace of these Indian peculiarities should
have been preserved by any of the other Indo-
Germanic races in later times, if they had all

THE ARYANS

15

originally dwelt in India.” (Lassen, Indian
Antiquities). A comparison of the Aryan lan-
guages leads us to believe that the early Aryans,
vrherever they might have lived, were familiar
with the birch, the pine, and also probably the
oak and willow, trees which do not generally
grow in the plains of India ; with snow and
ice, but not with hot summer ; and certainly
not with the elephant, the lion, the tiger,
the banian tree, and rice, things peculiarly
characteristic of the Indian soil. To the Rig-
vedic Indians the elephant first appears as a
strange animal, which they called a beast (mriga)
with a hand ( hastin ), while in later times
when the novelty of the animal had gone it was
commonly known as hastin only.

(3). At one time it was believed that the
Vedic language was the parent stock from which
the different Aryan languages were sprung,
and that the Vedas being known to have been
composed in India the different Aryan-speaking
peoples must have migrated from India. But
philology has proved that Latin and Greek,
and even the old Iranian language were not
the daughters, but younger sisters, of the Vedic
language, and that all of them were descended
from a parent stock of which there is no litera-
ture e.xtant. For instance, Latin and Greek
have preserved some forms of inflection which
are more archaic than those preserved in the

16

THE ARVANISATION OF INDIA

Vedas. Again, there are some roots, nominal
and verbal, in which the Indian language appears
to have lost the original form of the word, while
it has been preserved in Greek and Latin, or
both. An example is the Sanskrit word tara,
a star, which seems to have been originally
stara, a form which has been preserved in the
Greek aster and astron, in the Latin astrum,
as well as in the Zend stara. Further there
exist a number of Sanskrit nouns, which must
have been derived from radicals which in their
verbal form are not discoverable even in the
Vedas. (Muir, Sanskrit Texts 11.)

(4) During the Rigvedic period the Indo-
Aryans were evidently confined to the Punjab
and the Gangetic Doab, because while almost
all the rivers of North-west India and even
Afghanistan are frequently mentioned, and the
highest regard shown to the Indus and the Sara-
swati, the Rigvedic hymns are silent with regard
to any place or river name beyond the Ganges,
and even the famous Ganges is' mentioned
directly but once. That even the Punjab could
not be the original home of the Aryan people
is proved by the fact that during the Rigvedic
period even in that land the I ndo- Aryans were
surrounded by peoples, Dasyus, Dasas, Rakhas,
with whom they had very little in common,
either in physique, language, or creed, and with
whom they were carrying on ceaseless wars

THE ARYANS

17

of extermination. The Dasyus were the natives
of the soil, whose towns and fortresses were
captured and properties seized by the aggressive
Indo-Aryans and who were gradually being
pushed away from the country. It is impro-
bable, if we assume the Aryans to be autoch-
thonous in India, that two such entirely different
types of people should have ever been living
in the same limited area and developing on
their own lines without any intermingling.
Besides, the Vedic Aryans at that time seem
not to have been very numerous, and even the
Punjab, not to speak of the other parts of India,
must have been very thinly peopled. Why
then should a large number of them emigrate
to the less hospitable lands in Persia and Europe
while vast fertile fields and pleasanter climate
remained in their own immediate neighbourhood
in the Indian Peninsula ? The expansion of
the Aryans over Eastern and Southern India
took place in comparatively recent times. The
diffusion of t^e Aryans from the Punjab gra-
dually but steadily towards the interior also
leads to the conclusion that they came from
the north-west.

(5). It is true that the Indian literature
does not contain any distinct reference to a
migration from a northern home. But there
are passages here and there which appear in a
way to point to the tradition of a foreign
3

18

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

origin, (a) Expressions like Tokam pushyema
tanayam shatam himah. May we cherish a son
and progeny a hundred winters (Rig. 1.64.14.),
and Pashyemasharadah shatam jivcma sharadali
shatam., May we see, may we live, a hundred
autumns (Rig VII. 66. 16), might be reminiscent
of the colder regions from which they had come,
where the winter conditions having prevailed
for the greater part of the year, the winter or
autumn became synonymous with the year, (b)
In Rig I. 30. 9 Indra is invoked to come from
“the ancient abode,” which might mean the
ancient home of the Aryans, and connected
with this is the tradition that Indralaya or the
abode of Indra lay to the north of the Hindli-
kush, as is mentioned in the Amarakosha and
Sabdaratnavali. (c) (Jttarakuru, the traditional
Elysium of the Hindus, and Meru, the abode
of their gods, lie far to the north. Why
should they locate these places outside India
far to the north unless they had memories of
a northern home of their own ? (d) The know-

ledge of long polar days and nights, and horizon-
tal movements of stars in the polar regions,
as shown in their description of Meru and its
denizens (Tait. Brahmana III. 9. 22. i ; Mhbh.
Vanaparba ch. 163 ; Manu I. 67), has led some
scholars to point to the polar regions as the
cradle of the Aryan people, (e) Tilak points
out that in the Rigveda great prominence is

THE ARYANS

19

given to the goddes Ushas (dawn), who is
celebrated in about twenty hymns of the finest
quality, and mentioned more than three hundred
times, and that the period of dawn is divided
in the Vedic literature into several parts with
elaborate and intricate rites prescribed for
each part. All these are out of all proportion
to the short-lived and evanescent dawn of the
Indian zone, and though Tilak has not been
able to successfully establish his theory of an
Artie home of the Aryans from this and other
points, we may agree with him that the Indo-
Aryans came from a land where the morning
twilight was of greater duration than in India,
(f) In Kaushitaki Brahmana VII. 6. the lan-
guage of the northern regions is said to be a
model one, which might refer to the Aryan
tongue being spoken in its purity in their ori-
ginal home in the north.

(6) In the first Fargard of the Vendidad
where Ahura Mazda, the great god of the Ira-
nians, is desc^ribed as having created the different
countries, including Hapta-Hendu or the Punjab,
one after another, it is stated that Airyanavaejo,
which was created first of all, had long winters,
and that the ancestors of the Iranians started
in their migrations from that country. Thus
the Iranians, who are closely associated with
the Indo-Aryans, point not to India or Hapta-
Hendu but to Airyanavaejo, which could not

20

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

Central Asian
Theory.

have been a part of India, as their original
home.

If India be not the cradle of the Aryan race,
where is that ? The question has not yet been
satisfactorily answered. There is
the greatest diversity of opinion
among scholars, and various coun-
tries, e.g. Central Asia, North Africa (Sergi,
Zaborowski), South Russia (Benfey), North
Germany (Kossinna, Hirt), Scandinavia (Penka,
Rhys), Hungary (Giles), Eastern Europe (Fligier),
Northern Europe (Cuno), North Pole (Warren,
Tilak), Central and West Germany (Geiger),
have been contended for as the primitive habitat
of the Aryans with arguments which are more
or less shadowy and inconclusive. Of these
the Central Asian Theory was advocated by such
eminent sholars of the last century as Rhode,
Schlegel, Pott, Lassen, Jacob Grimm, Pictet, Max
Muller, Schleicher, Mommsen, Sayce, Hale, and
is even oow more current and presents fewer
objections than any other,
be not inappropriate to give
their main arguments here.

(i) The almost continuous
the Aryan-speaking peoples from
putra to the Atlantic naturally
assume that there must have been a primitive
centre of dispersion, and because of all the
Aryan dialects Sanskrit and Zend may be

a

It would, therefore,
summary of

extension of
the Brahma-
leads one to

THE ARYANS

21

considered to have changed the least while
Celtic in the extreme west has changed the most,
the presumption is that the lands now occupied
by Sanskrit and Zend must be the nearest to
the primitive home. (Sayce, Science of Lan-
guages II).

(2) This hypothesis is supported by the
Iranian tradition in the Zend Avesta which
says that the first creation of man took place
in Airyanavaejo, from which the Iranians spread
over more than a dozen countries before reach-
ing Persia. Now as most of these places are
situate in or about Central Asia, Airyanavaejo
or the original abode of the Iranians is believed
to have existed somewhere between the Caucasus
and the Oxus.

(3) . Sayce observes that the above tradition
agrees with the finding of Comparative Philo-
logy that the early Aryan home was a cold
region, “where trees like birch and pine grew, and
where winter was familiar with its snow and ice.”

(4) Here in Central Asia are found all
the physical elements which zoologists and
philologists demand for the great specialisations
in language and culture made by the primitive
Aryans before their dispersal, their numerous
population with cows and horses — a vast plain
undivided by lofty mountains or deserts or
impassable forests, a temperate climate, and
abundance of food both for men and cattle.

22

THE ARYANISATION OF IND lA

(5) In the absence of any common words
for sea and salt in the different Aryan languages
it is inferred that the undivided Aryans lived
in an inland country.

(6) . In later times it was Central Asia which
was the breeding place of the numerous Tartar
hordes which overflowed into Persia, India,
the Euphrates valley, and even Europe, as the
Aryans had done several milleniums ago.

(7) . A Babylonian tablet about 2100

B. C. indicates that the horse was a recent
acquisition among the ass-using folk of Babylon,
and describes it as “the ass from the east”,
or “from the mountains.” “Its arrival here
is commonly referred to that irruption of fresh
peoples from Iran or beyond, who founded
the barbarian Kassite (Aryan) dynasty of
Babylon ; as there is no reason to believe that
the great plateau of Iran itself was even then
in much better condition than now to support
an indigenous pastoral civilization, it is probable
that this irruption originated further |;o the north-
east, and that it is to be connected, in its

significance, if not precisely in date, with the
irruption of Aryan-speaking folk into India from
the same northern reservoir, and with that west-
ward outflow of the ‘tumulus folk’ across the
Dneiper, which broke up the painted-ware
culture of Tripolje and penetrated through
Galacia into Bohemia, and through the Balkan

THE ARYANS

23

lands into North-west Asia Minor.” (Cambridge
Ancient History I, p. 107).

(8). E. Meyer, Geschichte des altertums,
igog, 1. 2, discussing the original home of the
Indo-Europeans remarks ( p. 800 ) that the
discovery of Tocharish (a language spoken
in north-eastern Afghanistan), a language belong-
ing apparently to the centum (Western and
European) group, overthrows all earlier
conceptions as to the distribution of the Indo-
Germans and gives weight to the hypothesis
of their Asiatic origin,'’ (Keane and Haddon,
Man : Past and Present, p. 441)

One of the principal argument urged
against the Central Asian theory is that the
dreary Central Asian steppes could not find
subsistence for a numerous community as the
proto-Aryans must have been before their
dispersal. To this it may be said that the
climate of Central Asia and Eastern Persia has
undergone a material change for the worse
even in his^iorical times. Geologists like Blan-
ford and ^Vredenburg have proved that the
rainfall in Central Asia has fallen off greatly
in comparatively modern times making vast
areas uncultivable and practically uninhabi-
table* (Mem. Geol. Survey of India XXXI pt. 2),
Kirman is now an almost desert country with
very scanty rainfall. But Strabo in the first
century B. C. describes it as a fertile and well-

26

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

European races than the people of any other
part of India, It may seem strange that the
people of the Punjab, which is the gate of
India, have been able to retain for thousands
of years their original Aryan type in spite of
being exposed to countless waves of invasion
by various races from the north and west. But
we are to remember that the climate has con-
siderably changed in Central Asia, Afghanistan,
and Beluchistan since the Aryans first invaded
India. The rainfall has greatly fallen ofiF,
the rivers and streams have slowly dried up,
and desert claims as its own the once fertile
lands. It is now not possible for a tribal
migration across the north-western frontiers
of India. The road is practically closed except
to swiftly moving troops in comparatively
small numbers who can no doubt fight and
conquer, but cannot effect any appreciable
change in the racial characteristics of the
people of India.

According to the late Dr. A. R. Hoemle,
after the first stream of Aryan invaders had
settled in the Punjab a second
band from Central Asia, find-

Second Invanoii.

ing the usual route by the
Kabul valley barred, pushed their way through
Gilghit and Chitral, keeping close to the
northern mountains, and entered like a wedge
into the Midland country or Madhyadesha

COMING OF THE ARYANS

27

(which extended from the Himalayas on the
north to the Vindhyas on the south, and from
Sirhind in the Eastern Punjab on the west
to the confluence of the Ganges and the
Jumna on the east). There they split asunder
the first immigrants, and forced them outwards
in three directions, to the east, south, and
west. It was among the second group on the
Saraswati, Jumna, and Ganges that sacerdotal
rites and caste system were more fully
developed, which distinguish the classical
Brahmanic from the earlier Rigvedic culture.
Hence we find that the Punjab, though it was
the earliest Aryan settlement in India, was
in later times regarded as unholy land and the
people as barbarians. In the Mababharata the
Punjabese are regarded as the offspring of
Pishachas or demons. On the other hand,
the land between the Saraswati and the
Drishadvati, Brahmavarta, is described as the
most sacred, the next in importance being
Brahmarshidesha which extended as far the
confluence the Ganges and the Jumna (Manu,

II. 17-19)-

Hoemle’s theory has received the weighty
support of Sir George Grierson and Sir Herbert
Risley, and bears the stamp of
oflScial recognition of the Govern-
ment of India. Sir George Grier-
son, who as Director of the Linguistic Survey

28

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

of India possesses a unique knowledge of the
languages spoken in the different parts of India,
finds on careful examination that there are
radical differences between the Western Hin-
dustani, which is spoken in its purest form in
the Gan ge tic Doab, in an almost pure form in
the Eastern Punjab, and in a modified form
in Oudh, Rajputana, Gujarat, and Central India,
and the dialects of the Outer Band, namely,
Kashmiri, Sindhi, Mahratta, Behari, Bengali,
Assamese, Oriya, dialects which are all more
closely related to each other than any of them
to the language of the Midland. “In fact, at
an early period of the linguistic history of India
t^ere must have been two sets of Indo- Aryan
dialects — one the language of the Midland, and
the other the group of dialects forming the
Outer Band. From this it has been argued,
and the contention is entirely borne out by the
results of the ethnological enquiries, that the
inhabitants of the Midland represent the latest
stage of Indo-Aiyan immigration.” ^Sir Herbert
Risley supports this theory as otherwise “it is
difficult to account for the marked divergence
of type that distinguishes the people of the
Eastern Punjab from the people of Western
Hindustan. If there had been no second and
distinct incursion coming in like a wedge behind
the original colonists, no such sharp contrast
would now be discernible. One type would

COMING OF THE ARYANS

29

melt into the other by imperceptible gradations,
and scientific observation and popular im-
pressions would not occur, as they do, in affirm-
ing that a marked change takes place some-
where about the longitude of Sirhind — a name
which itself preserves the tradition of an ethnic
frontier. Nor is this the only point in favour
of Dr. Hoernle’s hypothesis. That theory
further explains how it is that the Vedic hymns
contain no reference to the route by which the
Aryans entered India or to their earlier settle-
ments on the Indus ; and it accounts for the
antagonism between the eastern and western
sections and for the fact that the latter were
regarded as comparative barbarians by the more
cultured inhabitants of the Middle-land.” (Peo-
ple of India, pp, 54-55).

Mr. C. V. Vaidya in his Epic India seems
to find in the Pandavas and their kinsmen the
later Aryan immigrants, and thinks that the
Kurukshetra war marks the victory of the new-
comers over the old. The custom of polyandry,
which is represented by Yudhisthira as “our
family custom,” seems to distinguish them from
the Kurus in whose family there was no such
practice, and accords very well with the hypo-
thesis that the later immigrants, travelling by a
very difficult route, could bring with them few
women, and so had to practise polyandry, and
also to mingle more freely with the aboriginal

28

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

of India possesses a unique knowledge of the
languages spoken in the different parts of India,
finds on careful examination that there are
radical differences between the Western Hin-
dustani, which is spoken in its purest form in
the Gangetic Doab, in an almost pure form in
the Eastern Punjab, and in a modified form
in Oudh, Rajputana, Gujarat, and Central India,
and the dialects of the Outer Band, namely,
Kashmiri, Sind hi, Mahratta, Behari, Bengali,
Assamese, Oriya, dialects which are all more
closely related to each other than any of them
to the language of the Midland. “In fact, at
an early period of the linguistic history of India
there must have been two sets of Indo-Aryan
dialects — one the language of the Midland, and
the other the group of dialects forming the
Outer Band. From this it has been argued,
and the contention is entirely borne out by the
results of the ethnological enquiries, that the
inhabitants of the Midland represent the latest
stage of Indo-Aiyan immigration.” ^ Sir Herbert
Risley supports this theory as othei^wise “it is
difficult to account for the marked divergence
of type that distinguishes the people of the
Eastern Punjab from the people of Western
Hindustan. If there had been no second and
distinct incursion coming in like a wedge behind
the original colonists, no such sharp contrast
would now be discernible. One type would

COMING OF THE ARYANS

29

melt into the other by imperceptible gradations,
and scientific observation and popular im-
pressions would not occur, as they do, in affirm-
ing that a marked change takes place some-
where about the longitude of Sirhind — a name
which itself preserves the tradition of an ethnic
frontier. Nor is this the only point in favour
of Dr. Hoernle’s hypothesis. That theory
further e.vplains how it is that the Vedic hymns
contain no reference to the route by which the
Aryans entered India or to their earlier settle-
ments on the Indus ; and it accounts for the
antagonism between the eastern and western
sections and for the fact that the latter were
regarded as comparative barbarians by the more
cultured inhabitants of the Middle-land.” (Peo-
ple of India, pp. 54-55)-

Mr. C. V. Vaidya in his Epic India seems
to find in the Pandavas and their kinsmen the
later Aryan immigrants, and thinks that the
Kurukshetra war marks the victory of the new-
comers over the old. The custom of polyandry,
which is represented by Yudhisthira as “our
family custom,” seems to distinguish them from
the Kurus in whose family there was no such
practice, and accords very well with the hypo-
thesis that the later immigrants, travelling by a
very difficult route, could bring with them few
women, and so had to practise polyandry, and
also to mingle more freely with the aboriginal

30

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

population than the earlier conquerors, which
accounts for such a sudden divergence in physical
type between the people of the Punjab and
those of the Gangetic valley. The Pandava
brothers, too, had little distaste for marriage
with girls of the aboriginal races, Rakshasa or
Naga,

Hoernle’s theory, however, has not passed
unchallenged. Prof. Rapson writing
^**^^01*^!**^ Cambridge History of India

I (p. 45) observes, “This theory is
made improbable by the physical difficulties of
the route suggested, and some of the arguments
adduced in its favour are demonstrably mistaken.
There is no such break of continuity between
the tribes of the Rigveda and the peoples of the

later literature as it presupposes Both

of the facts mentioned above — the abrupt transi-
tion from the Indo-Aryan to the Aryo-Dravidian
type, and the extension of Aryan influence from
Brahmavarta to Brahmarshidesha — ^are best un-
derstood if we remember the n^jtural feature
which connects the plain of the IncJ^s with the
plain of the Ganges. This is the strait of habitable
land which lies between the desert and the
mountains. Its historical significance has al-
ready been noticed. It is in this strait that the
decisive battles, on which the fate of India has
depended, have been fought; and here too we may
suppose that the progress of racial migrations

COMING OF THE ARYANS

31

from the north-west in prehistoric times must
have been checked. Both politically and ethno-
graphically it forms a natural boundary. In the
age of the Rigveda the Aryans had not broken
through the barrier, though the Jumna is men-
tioned in a hymn (VII. 18.19) such a way as
to indicate that a battle had been won on its
banks. It was only at some later date that the
country between the Upper Jumna and Ganges

and the district of Delhi were occupied The

epoch of Indo-Aryan tribal migration was defi-
nitely closed. It was succeeded by the epoch
of Indo-Aryan colonisation.”

Prof. Chanda in his Indo-Aryan Races

tries to demolish Hoernle’s theory and set

^ ^ up a theory of his own. “To

Chanda s Theory. ^ . 1 i- r

explain the peculiar position of

the mixed or intermediate Indo-Aryan lan-
guages, Grierson assumes that the population
and power of the Midland increased and its
armies and its settlers carried its language to
the Eastern Punjab, Gujarat, and Oudh. But
the Vedic,ythe Pali-Buddhist, and Pauranic
literatures preserve no tradition relating to
the conquest and annexation of Usinara on
the one hand, Kosala and Kasi on the other,
by the Kurus, Panchalas, Matsyas or Vasas.
According to the Aitareya Brahmana {VIII. 14)
while the kings (rajas) of the Middle country
— of Usinara, Kuru, Panchala, and Vasa— were

32

THE ARYANISATION OF IND lA

consecrated to “kingdom” (rajyaya), in the
eastern country (prachyam disi) the rulers
(rajas) of the eastern peoples — of the Kosalas
and Videhas — were consecrated to empire

(samrajyaya). This seems to indicate that at the
time of the composioion of this Brahmana
the rulers of the East were much more
powerful than the rulers of the Middle country.
The dynasties and clans that held sway
contemporaneously in the Middle and Outer
countries of Northern India according to the
Brahmanas and the Upanishads survived down
to about a century after Buddha. ...The tide
of conquest, when it started, started not from
the west but from the east — from Magadha,”
by the Sisunagas, the Nandas, the Mauryas,
and the Guptas. “It was not, therefore, the
conquering armies of the Midland, but the
armies and settlers from Magadha and other
Outer countries that carried their languages'*
to Oudh and other places where mixed
languages are now spoken.” After thus
criticising the theory of Hoernle ai,d Grierson
Chanda goes on to propound a new theory,
according to which later Aryan invaders of
the brachycephalic Celtic type finding the
greater part of Upper Hindustan in possession
of the dolichocephalic Vedic Aryans found
their way some to the lower Gangetic plain
across the tableland of Central India, and

COMING OF THE ARYANS

33

some into the Kathivvar Peninsula and the
Deccan, thus occupying the Outer countries
from Kashmir to Bengal. This theory, however,
as Barnett remarks, seems on the whole less
probable than the other. It does not account
for the predominance of long-head in the
Punjab, the change of head-form towards
broadness from the Punjab to the Gangetic
valley, and the gradual, not sharp, change in
head-form and nose-shape from the Jumna to
the lower Gangetic valley, and also lor the
anthropometric diversities between the peoples
of Kashmir, the Punjab, Sind, Gujarat, Maha-
rastra, and Bengal, though they are said to
belong to one race.

The problem of a second invasion still
remains a puzzle. It is not unlikely that the

Second Invasion Indo-Aryans did not come all at
Theory not one time and by one route only,
necessary. Some seem to find evidences in
the Rigveda of the tribes Yadu and Turvasha
coming by sea. We are told in Rig. VI. 20. 12,
“O hero (Inftra), thou broughtest in safety
over the sea (samudra) Turvasha and Yadu,”
though the word samudra is interpreted by many
scholars as meaning not sea but a mass of
waters only. But it is almost impossible to
disentangle the descendants of the later immi-
grants, if any, from those of the earlier in the
greater part of the country. In order to
5

34

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

find an explanation for the cultural difference
between the peoples of the Inner and Outer
Bands we have a clue in some Epic and
Pauranic traditions. The Anus, one of the
Rigvedic tribes living in the Punjab, are said to
have been divided into two branches, one the
Usinaras with their offshoots, the Yaudheyas,
Kekayas, Madrakas, Sivis, Sauviras and others,
ruling in the Punjab and Sind, and the other
the Titikshus under the sons of Bali ruling
over Bengal, East Behar, and Orissa (Anga,
Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra, Suhma). Or in other
words, the Aryan conquerors of Eastern India
came mostly from the Punjab and not the Midland
country. The differences in physical type
between the Punjab and the Eastern countries
are not so unusual as to be incapable of being
explained by the ordinary effect of Dravidian
and Mongolian influences upon a thinning stream
of Aryan conquerors. In Northern India, I
agree with Risley that the tendency towards
broad-head was the result not so much of
the immigration of brachycephfalic Aryan
tribes as of the admixture of Mongolian
blood, which becomes more pronounced
as one goes farther to the east. The statement
of the late Dr. Smith, even if we do not
agree with him as regards the extraction of
the Sakyas and the Lichchhavis, seems true
that the Mongolian element played a more

COMING OF THE ARYANS

35

important part in Northern India than is
generally realised. Besides the cephalic and
nasal indices, a blue patch in the lower sacral
region of the new born, which is characteristic
of the South Mongol races (Keane and Haddon,
Man Past and Present p. 164), betrays Mon-
golian strain in many a child even among the
higher classes in the lower Gangetic valley.
The differences in language between the Midland
group and the Outer group can be easily ex-
plained if we remember that the Brahmanic
literature and institutions as distinguished from
the Rigvedic grew up in the Kuru-Panchala
country, while the people of the Punjab remained
backward or primitive. So there were two types
of culture — the older of the Punjab and the
later of the Midland. It is the former type
which with the Anus spread to Eastern India
and with the Yadus to the Deccan. Later the
Midland culture began to conquer its way to
the west through Malwa, Rajputana, and Gujarat,
while on the east, in Videha, Kasi, and Oudh,
it somewha'’ receded before the conquering
armies of Southern and Eastern Behar.

The only case which still baffles the

anthropologists is the Mahratta people with
their broad heads. The modern

l£hwMfra. Dravidians are long-headed,

and the Vedic Aryans too are

believed to have been long-headed, and so also

36

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

are the Pre-Dravidian Munda and Mon-Khmer
races. How then to account for the broad
head of the Mahratta ? According to Chanda
the second stream of Aryan people who
encircled the first group on three sides belonged
to the brachycephalic Celtic type. Without
going so far as to assume a ring of cognate
races belonging to one type from one end of
India to the other, we can agree with him
in the assumption that a tribe of Aryans of the
Celtic type came and settled in the Mahratta
districts only. At least this is more probable than
Risley’s theory of Scytho-Dravidian origin
of the Mahratta people because it seems
unlikely that the Scythian invaders could come
through the dreary north-western frontiers,
and through the Punjab, Malwa, Gujarat to
the Mahratta country in such large numbers
as to be able to strongly influence the ethnic
characteristics of the vast Aryo-Dravidian
population already settled there ; or than Dr.
Barnett’s too bold assumption (Antiquities of
India p. 32) that “the Dravidian blo'ed vanished
in that of the old native stocks (Munda and
Mon-khmer races) in most districts, but preserved
some of its old characteristics in the
Mahratta country (traditionally Dravidian).”
If we remember that broad-headed Aryan-
speaking peoples are to be found in Persia
and Afghanistan and that there was frequent

COMING OF THE ARYANS

37

intercourse between the Persian Gulf and the
western coasts of India even in prehistoric times,
it is not difficult to conceive of a migration
of broad-headed tribes, either Aryan of the
Celtic type, or mixed Aryan and South
Semitic, or Aryanised aborigines, from Iran
to Western India (like that of the Parsees
in historical times) at a time when the native
Dravidian population was not very dense and
when the Vedic Aryans had not extended
their influence beyond the Nerbudda. So
when the latter came and imposed their culture,
the population had already received an indelible
stamp of the brachycephalic type, which was
kept alive by the likely influx of small groups
from the Persian Gulf from time to time
in the wake of commerce and colonisation.
So instead of the name Scytho-Dravidian given
by Risley we may call the Mahratta type
Irano-Dravidian.# According to most scholars,

* “Overlooking later Mongolo-Turki encroachments, a
general survey wijl, I think, show that from the earliest times
the whole of this region (Irania) has formed part of the Cauca-
sic domain; that the bulk of the indigenous populations must
have belonged to the dark, round-headed Alpine type; that
these, still found in compact masses in many places, were
apparently conquered, but certainly Aryanised in speech, in
very remote prehistoric times by long-headed blond Aryans of
the Iranic and Galchic branches, who arrived in large numbers
from the contiguous Eurasian steppe, mingled generally with
the brachy aborigines, but also kept aloof in several districts,

38

THE ARYANISATION OF IJJDIA

including Grierson and Rapson, the Pishacha
languages in the north-western frontier districts
were evolved through contact between the Indo-
Aryan and Iranian languages. It is well-known
that at one time one form of Pishacha language
prevailed in the Mahratta country, which too
lends colour to the hypothesis of Iranian element
in the Mahratta blood. Again, the name Ratti-
kas or Rattas of the people of the country which
was in use at least as early as the time of Asoka
sounds very similar to that of the warrior class
of Iran, Rathaesthas.

where they still survive with more or less modified proto-

Aryan features Both Iranic and Galchic are thus rather

linguistic than ethnic terms, and so true is this that a philo-
logist always knows what is meant by an Iranic language,
while the anthropologist is unable to define or form any clear
conception of an Iranian, who may be either of long-headed
Nordic or round-headed Alpine type,” (Keane and Haddon,
Man Past and Present pp. 541 — 542).

According to F. v. Luschan (The Early Inhabitants of
Asia), the primitive people of Western Asia were brachy ce-
phalic and dark.

Seligman (The Physical Characters of thel^rabs) has shown
that the Semites of Southern Arabia are predominantly
brachy cephalic, the cephalic index ranging from 71 to 92, with
an average of about 82.

CHAPTER 1 1 1.

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS.

Date of Panini.

In order to construct a workable chronology
of the Vedic period we must first ascertain
the approximate dates of the
celebrated grammarian Panini, and
of the adoption of writing for the expression of
the Sanskrit language We know definitely that
Patanjali, the great commentator on Panini’s
grammar, lived in the middle of the 2nd century
B. C. Between Patanjali and Katyayana, the
great critic commentator, there arose a large
number of grammarians, authors of Varttikas
and Karikas, such as Bharadvajiyas, Saunagas
and others, who have been noticed in Patan-
jali’s book, and hence we may reasonably put
Katyayana two centuries earlier, in the middle
of the 4th century B. C. Now that is exactly
the time assigned to Katyayana by Indian
tradition according to which he was minister to
a Nanda king.* We cannot, however, accept

Mr. Jayaswal (Indian Antiquary XLVII p. 138) seems to
find in Katyayana’s note Sakaparthivadinamupasankhyanam
on Panini II. 1. 60, a reference to the Arsacidae kings of
Parthia, and so assigns Katyayana to the latter half of the
third century B.C. But if the word Saka here was used to
denote a race, PaUnjali, who from his date was expected to

40

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

the story of the Kathasaritsagara, written in the
1 2th century A. D., about the defeat of Panini
by Katyayana, except as an allegory to describe
the extremely learned and destructive criticism
of Katyayana’s Varttikas upon Panini’s book.
Against that tradition may be set another in
the recently discovered drama Padmapravritakam
by Sudraka, which contains a character, Katya-
yana, which is evidently a caricature of the
famous grammarian, and makes him a con-
temporary not of Panini, but of a descendant of
his. That Panini was anterior to, and not a
contemporary of, Katyayana is indicated by
Patanjali’s reference of Panini as a Rishi, who
“sees” (pashyati) i. e., to whom is revealed a
particular rule, as distinguished from what
others like Katyayana “say” ( bakshyati ).
Secondly, had they been contemporaries, Panini’s
Sutras, about half of which had been attacked by
Katyayana, could not have survived the very
learned and bitter criticism of the rival, and
gained universal fame as the greatest authority
in grammar. “How could India,” Goldstucker

be more acquainted with the Sakas, could not have explained
it as Sakabhoji, vegetable-eating and Bhattoji Dikshit as
Sakapiiya, fond of power. If, however, the word Saka must
be made to denote a proper name, there is no necessity to
go to Persia, as Saka was quite a common name among the
Vedic Indians, e. g., Sakadasa Bhaditayana of the Vamsa
Biahmana, Sakayana of Kathaka Samhita.

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS 41

observes, “resound with the fame of a work
which was so imperfect as to contain at least
10,000 inaccuracies, omissions, and mistakes

(as pointed out by Katyayana) ? If he had

bungled along, as he must appear to have done,
had he been a contemporary of Katyayana, —
not he, but the author of the Varttikas, would
have been the inspired Rishi and the reputed
father of the Vyakarana.” This perplexity
vanishes if we assume that Panini and Katyayana
belonged to different periods, and that the
supposed mistakes or omissions were not really so,
but were due to the fact that many grammatical
forms and words and meanings of words which
were current in the time of Panini had become
obsolete or incorrect in the time of Katyayana,
and that words and grammatical forms unknown
to Panini had come into use in the time of his
critic. The omission of Panini to deal with
such peculiar words as Pandya, Chola, Kerala,
which necessitated the making of supplementary
rules by Katyayana, can only be explained by
the assumption that in Panini’s time the Indo-
Aryans bad not come into touch with Southern
India. Thirdly, some Karikas and Paribhashas
can be traced in the work of Patanjali which
had been written before the time of Katyayana
but certainly after that of Panini. Fourthly, there
is an indirect reference to Panini being regarded
as of distant past in Katyayana’s Varttika
6

42

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

Julyakalatvat on Panini’s rule Puranaproktcshu
brahmanakalpeshu (IV. 3. 105). Under these
circumstances it is not unreasonable to place
Panini a century and a half earlier than Katya-
yana, i. e. in about 500 B. C. This date is
not irreconcilable with the reference in Panini’s
book to Yavanani oT writing (IV. 1.49)

and to female Sramanas, probably Buddhist nuns
(II. I. 70), the Gandhara country having been
conquered in about 516 B. C. by Darius with the
aid of Greek officers like Skylax from Ionia and
and Caria, and Gautama Buddha having passed
away about 543 B. C. (Smith, The Oxford
History of India, p. 48). Goldstucker’s argument
for referring Panini to a date before Buddha
on the strength of Nirvana vate (VIII. 2. 50)
is not conclusive because Panini either dealt
with the root meaning of the word nirvana
without caring for technical meanings, or more
probably deliberately ignored Buddhism.
“Doubtless this ( Y avanani) means Greek (Ionian)
writing, but it does not necessarily follow that
the word dates from after the invasion of
Alexander. Indeed the probability seems to
me against this being the case. For it is
certainly remarkable that Ionian should be
the name given to the Greeks if first made
known to India through the invasion of
Alexander, whose army was certainly in no
conceivable sense Ionian.” On the other

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

43

hand, we know that the Persians under Cyrus
came into touch first with the Ionian Greeks
after the fall of Croesus (546 B, C.), and that
the first Greek resistance to Darius came
from the lonians who burned Sardis about
500 B. C. “If it is borne in mind that Panini
was a native of Gandhara according to Hiuen
Tsang, a view confirmed by the references in
his grammar, it will not seem far-fetched to
consider that it was most probably from the
older tradition that the name Yavanani was

derived.” (Keith, Ait. Aranyaka, p. 23.).

According to Buhler writing was introduced
into India about 800 B. C. “The palaeo-

. .... graphical evidence of the Asoka

Wntiiig in India. ... , , , .1 ^

inscnptions clearly shows that

writing was no recent invention in the third
century B. C., for the most of the letters
have several, often very divergent forms,
sometimes as many as nine or ten. A consi-
derable length of time was, moreover, needed
to elaborate from the twenty-two borrowed
Semitic symbols the full Brahmi alphabet of
forty-six letters. This complete alphabet,
which was evidently worked out by learned
Brahmins on phonetic principles, must have
existed by 500 B. C, according to the strong
arguments adduced by Prof. Buhler. This

is the alphabet which is recognised in Panini’s
great Sanskrit grammar,” (Macdonell, Sanskrit

44

JHE ARYA’;4I3ATIO-V OF INDIA

Literature* pp. i6, 17). Again, the manner
of Asaka’s address to the people direct,
fhe employment of local dialects in his
inscriptions, and the locations of the inscrip-
tions, all indicate a wide-spread literacy of
the people in the third century B. C.,
a thing impossible of attainment in such
a vast country as India in less than five
centuries. Further, we know that the Kharosti
script had been a product of Darius’ conquest of
the Indus valley at the end of the sixth century
B. C, If by that time the Brahmi script had
not been fully developed in India the Kharosti
script must have spread widely over the country
instead of remaining confined to the Persian
province only. All these prove that writing
must have been adopted for the expression of
the Sanskrit language in the 8th century B. C.
at the latest.

Every student of the Vedic literature knows
that it is divided into two parts — the earlier

part, the Sruti or revealed litera-

ir ture consisting of the four Vedas

veaic Literatare. °

and the Brahmanas including the
Aranyakas and the Upanishads ; and the later
part, the Smriti or literature based on tradition,
written in the form of Sutras, the most impor-
tant of which are the six Vedangas. Again
the Sruti literature falls into three clearly sun-
dered groups — (i) the original Vedic hymns.

DATE OF INDO-ARYAM INVASIONS 45

the bulk of which are to be found collected in
the Rigveda ; (2) the later compilations and
classifications of the hymns as in the three other
Vedas, and the elaborate commentaries on the
Vedic hymns to explain the mutual relation of
the sacred text and the ceremonial, especially
in connection with the great sacrifices, as in the
Brahmanas proper ; (3) the development of the
philosophical ideas as in the Aranyakas and the
Upanishads, which generally come at the end
of the Brahmanas. From an examination of
language and thought too we find that the
Upanishads generally succeeded the Aranyakas,
which in their turn succeeded the Brahmanas
proper. Of course a clear line of demarcation
is not possible between the period of the Brah-
manas and the period of the Aranyakas and Upa-
nishads, and there are instances of a Brahmana,
or parts of a Brahmana, being a later produc-
tion than many of the Aranyakas and Upanishads.
But these are exceptions, which do not nullify
the general three-fold divisions of the Brahmana
period.

The Sutras presuppose the existence of the
Brahmanas, whose complicated system of theo-

lofifv and ceremonial they sought
Sntra Period. ® . ..r rp, , „ ,

to simplify. The dogmas and be-
liefs embodied in the Sutras and their language
which stands midway between the language
of the Brahmanas and the classical Sanskrit

46

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

prove their continuity without any break from
the Brahmana literature. Max Muller and his
followers including Macdonell and Keith fix
B. C. 600 to 200 for the Sutra period. But
the beginning must be pushed back by at least
two centuries, (i). The Sutras in their com-
position show a freedom which is hardly con-
ceivable after the period of Panini, and so a
great many of them must have been composed
and the literature standardised before 500 B. C.

(2) . The Sutras in their inception were intended
to satisfy the needs of a system of oral instruc-
tion in all branches of knowledge, and in their
form point to an origin at a period when writing
was not known, i.e. before the 8th century B. C.

(3) . The Sutra style had been so long estab-
lished in the country and so possessed the
minds of the literary classes that the early
Buddhist writers in the 5th century B. C. could
not get rid of it, but made a useless imitation of
this style in their books, sometimes with ludi-
crous effect. (4). Between Panini and Yaska,
the famous author of Nirukta, there must be an
interval of atleast two hundred years if we
take into account the great changes in language
and the great development of grammar which
had taken place, and the considerable number
of important grammarians who had arisen during
the intervening period. On no account, there-
fore, we can put Yaska later than 700 B. C.

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

47

And Yaska’s book is not certainly the earliest
work of the Sutra period. Thus the beginnings
of the Sutra period may be reasonably dated
about 800 B. C.

This date, B. C. 800, may then be taken
as marking the end of the Brahmana period,
which preceded the Sutra period.
That this is a fair estimate can be
judged from a consideration of the
relations between the philosophical doctrines
of Gautama Buddha, of the Sankhya school
and of the Upanishads (Keith, Ait. Aranyaka,
pp. 47-49). Gautama Buddha flourished in the
6th century B. C. His teachings presuppose
the Sankhya school of philosophy. “It is
I think correct to assume that these doc-
trines are descended from a Sankhya view
of existence which fell into pessimism by its
unsatisfactory dualistic metaphysics. However
open to criticism Jacobi’s detailed derivation
of the doctrines of Buddhism from the Sankhya
may be, yet it is clear that it was from the
Sankhya that Buddhism derived its theory of
the soulless entity which yet goes through
transmigration’’ (Keith). The Sankhya doc-
trines are to a great extent criticisms on and
supplements to the Upanishad doctrines,
and show a more developed thought than the
latter. The development of Sankhya might
have begun in the 8th century B. C., and it

48 THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

is therefore that we do not meet with any
but indirect mention of the Sankhya system
in the Upanishads, and that also in the latest
ones. Buddhist tradition too allows a respec-
table distance of time between Kapila, the
founder of the Sankhya system, and Gautama
Buddha. Moreover, as the beginnings of the
Sutra writing are anterior to Panini and as
the language of the Upanishads is more
archaic than even the language of the Sutras,
the end of the Brahmana period may be
believed to be about three hundred years
before Panini’s time. Again, the Brahmanas,
the Aranyakas, and the Upanishads betray
not the slightest trace of any knowledge of
writing, and must, therefore, belong to a period
before 800 B. C. Some of the Upanishads
like the Maitrayaniya may be of later date,
but the bulk of them were composed before
800 B. C.

If we calculate back the length of the
Brahmana period from 800 B. C. we can arrive
at the beginning of the Brahmana period and
the end of the Mantra or hymn period. The
immense mass of Brahmana literature extant,
which again is only a fraction of what has been
lost, as appears from the numerous names and
quotations from Brahmanas unknown to us
occurring in works extant ; the number of stages
which are clearly perceptible ill the domain of

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

49

thought spreading over the Brahmanas, the
Aranyakas and the Upanishads ; the rise of so
many different schools of thought and ritualism ;
and the endless genealogical lists of teachers
can hardly be accommodated within a space of
less than five or six hundred years. This
estimate will appear not liberal if we take into
consideration the fact that the Brahmana litera-
ture represents a period of intellectual
decadence after the creative energies of the
Indo- Aryan mind had exhausted themselves by
the end of the hymn period, and that, therefore,
the progress of thought was comparatively slow.
Besides, we know that in ritualism and phi-
losophy a people, unless subjected to strong
external influences, makes progress at a much
slower rate than in other fields of literary
activity. Again, as Winternitz justly observes,
“a written literature can develop in a shorter
time than one that is only handed down by word
of mouth, when each single text requires genera-
tions of teachers and disciples in order to be
preserved at all.” So the estimate of two or
three hundred years for the Brahmana period
made by Max Muller, Keith and others does
not seem reasonable. Indeed, Max Muller
himself admits that “the chronological limits
assigned to the Sutra and Brahmana periods
will seem to most Sanskrit scholars too narrow
rather than tof wide.” All these consideratioru
7

50

THE ARYANISATION OP INDIA

may well lead us to find the beginning of the
Aranyaka compositions at about 1200 B. C. and
that of the Upanishad at 1000 B.C.

That the above estimate is nearer the mark
is proved by the absence of any mention of the
epoch-making Kurukshetra war, of the Pandavas,
the heroes of the Mahabharata, and of Arjuna,
except as meaning the god Indra, in the Brah-
manas, which indicates their composition, at
least of the bulk of them,before the Kurukshetra
war, which, according to the calculation of Mr.
Pargiter from Pauranic genealogical lists, took
place about the middle of the loth century
B. C. Moreover, according to the Puranas, there
is the space of 1050 years between Mahapadma
Nanda (about 400 B.C.) and Parikshit (Pargiter,
Kali Age, p. 58), and if we assume the latter to
be Parikshit I, who is mentioned in the Atharva-
veda, Aitareya Brahmana and Satapatha Brah-
mana, instead of Parikshit II, the grandson of
Arjuna, we reach the 15th century B.C. for the
beginning of the Brahmana period.*

* Dhritarastra of the Brahmanas was not identical with
Dhritarastra, the ancestor of the Kuru-Pandavas, the former
being a king of Kasi who was defeated by the Kurus. Simi-
larly, Parikshit and Janamejaya of the Brahmanas were the
ancestors and not descendants of the Pandavas. The identifica-
tion of the Vedic Parikshit with the son of Abhimanyu (Poli-
tical History of Ancient India) by Prof. H. C* Ray Chondhury,
which goes against the findings of MacdoneU and Keith (Vedic

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

51

“Another and, at first sight, more promising
attempt has made to fix a date from internal
evidence. It has been argued by Jacobi on
the strength of two hymns in the Rigveda that

Index, Vol. I. p. 494) and of Pargiter( Ancient Indian Historical
Tradition, p. 114), does not seem probable. The Vishupurana
(IV. 20. I.) makes the four brothers, Janamejaya, Srutasena,
Ugrasena, Bhimasena, sons of Parikshit I and ancestors of the
Pandavas. It is always risky to attempt the identification of
kings or the fixing of their dates from an examination of their
teacher-priests' names. Identity of names does not necessari-
ly imply identity of persons. Different persons of the same
name but living in different times were often confused in later
writings. Besides, there could not be want of motives in later
times on the part of the authors belonging to rival families
and schools to associate a certain teacher-priest with a famous
king of old so as to enhance the prestige of a particular priest-
ly family or a particular school, and to ascribe the authorship
of well-known doctrines and theories to particular persons
which might shed lustre upon their descendants or disciples*
The Vamsas or genealogies of teachers, from which Prof. Ray
Choudhury draws his materials, were often composed long
after the actual composition of the books in which they are
included. The commentators never enter into any explana-
tion of these Vamsas, as doubtless they regarded them as
later and not very reliable writings. The Vamsa appended
at the close of the tenth book of Satapatha Brahmana differs
from the general Vamsa of the entire Brahmana at the close
of the fourteenth book in not referring the work to Yajna-
valkya, but to Sandilya and Tura Kavasheya. In the Khila-
kanda of the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad Uddalaka is re-
presented as the teacher of Yajnavalkya, while in the Yajna-
valkyakanda Uddalaka is treated with as scant courtesy by
Yajnavalkya as is shown to the other Brahmanas who are put

52

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

the year then began with the summer solstice,
and that at that solstice the sun was in con-

to silence by the hero of the book, and there is not the slight-
est indication that one was the pupil of the other.

An excellent instance of the confusion which arises from
the identity of names may be cited. *‘One Suka had a daughter
Krtvi or Kirtli, who married Anuha king of South Panchala
and was mother of king Brahmadatta. The other was Vyasa’s
son, far later. It will be shown in chapter XIII that Brahma-
datta was a contemporary of the Kaurava king Pratipa, and
that his great great grandson Janamejaya was a contemporary
of Pratipa^s great grandson Bhisnia and of Prsata (Drupada's
father), Bhisma was of about the same age as Satyavati, the
maiden mother of Vyasa, for he was a youth when his father
married young Satyavati; hence Vyasa was younger than
Bhisma, and his son Suka was therefore at least a generation
later. From Brahmadatta's grandfather Suka down to Vyasa’s
son Suka there were therefore some six generations. The
ksatriya genealogies and traditions keep the two Sukas distinct,
but the brahmanical vamsas in their attempt to construct
Vyasa’s family identify the two, give Vyasa’s son Suka a
daughter Kirtimati, say she was Anuha's queen and Brahma-
datta’s mother, and so make Brahmadatta great grandson of
Vyasa, thus misplacing Anuha and Brahmadatta from their
true position to one some six generations later.” (Pargiter, Anc.
Ind, Hist. Trad, pp 64-65). There are numerous instances to
show that persons who were widely separated in time are
brought together as contemporaries in later writings. The
Santiparva says that Bhisma learnt dharma from among others
Bhargava Chyavana, and Rama Jamadagnya, as if these three
lived in the same age. According to Pargiter, there were
several Yajnavalkyas, Jaiminis and Vaisampayanas (Ibid,
Chapter XXVII). So it is difficult to fix the chronological
position of a king from his association with the name of
a particular sage, unless there are corroborative evidences.

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

53

junction with the lunar mansion Phalguni.
Now the later astronomy shows that the lunar
mansions were, in the sixth century A. D.,
arranged so as to begin for purposes of reckoning
with that called Acvini, because at the vernal
equinox at that date the sun was in conjunction
with the star Piscium. Given this datum, the
precession of the equinoxes allows us to cal-
culate that the beginning of the year with the
summer solstice in Phalguni took place about

4000 B. C It (the argument) rests upon

two wholly improbable assumptions, first that
the hymns really assert that the year began
at the summer solstice, and, second, that the sun
was then brought into any connexion at all with
the Nakshatras, for which there is no evidence
whatever. The Nakshatras are, as their name
indicates and as all the evidence of the later
Samhitas shows, lunar mansions pure and simple”
(Cambridge History of India I, pp. 111-112).
But more definite is a notice in the Kaushitaki
Brahmana (XIX. 3), which is repeated in the
Jyotisha, that the winter solstice took place at
the new moon in Magha. Though scholars are
not all agreed in accepting the assumptions
involved (Keith, Rigveda Brahmanas Translated,
p. 49), the objections are not as strong as in the
previous case, and we may with some justification
accept the results obtained from this datum.
The results, however, vary from 139I to 1181

54

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

B. C., and fit in with our estimate of the Brah-
mana period. The cumulative effect of all
the above considerations is practically decisive
of a date for the beginning of the Brahmana
period about the middle of the second
millenium B. C. *

Max Muller assigns 400 years to the com-
position and compilation of the Samhitas,

n- j- n • j “under the supposition that during
Kigvedic renod* . ^ r ^ i

the early penods of history, the

growth of the human mind was more luxuriant

than in later times, and that the layers of thought

were framed less slowly in the primary than

in the tertiary ages of the world”. 1’ This

is no doubt an underestimate, and considering

the great variety of the contents of the Rigveda,

which again is only a small remnant of a vast

*Keith (Aitareya Aranyaka, pp. 21 seq) argues from work
to work, taking the lower limit in each case — ‘Tanini, who
cannot well be dated later than 300 B. C,,” “Yaska, who can
hardly be brought down lower than 550 — 500 and so

on. But he does not assign any reason why these dates can
not be pushed back by two centuries. Again, he fixes the
date of the Aitareya Aranyaka as between 700 and 600 B. C.,
and admits that the “upper date may perhaps be pushed
further back” (p. 50), yet he sticks to the lower date.

f That Max Muller himself regarded his chronology as
tentative is expressed in his Gifford Lectures on Physical
Religion (1890) where he says : “Whether the Vedic hymns
were composed 1000 or 1500 or 3000 or 3000 years B, C no
power on earth will ever determine.”

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

55

hymn literature most of which has been irre-
trievably lost, the perceptible changes in
language which had taken place during the
hymn period, distinguishing the earlier from
the later strata of hymns, the references in the
Rigveda itself to “sages of olden times’’ and
“old hymns being clothed in newer garbs,”
“hymns composed in the old way,” the period
of composition alone of the Rigvedic hymns
must have extended over many centuries and
may be fixed from 2000 to 1400 B. C. One
of the reasons of Max Muller for adopting a
later date for the Rigvedic period is that he
observes a coincidence in language between
the Vedic hymns and the Avestan Gathas
similar to that between the Homeric Greek
and the Classical Greek, and he dates the Gathas
from the sixth century B. C. But the difficulty
is that there is yet no agreement among scholars
about the date of the earliest Gathas. Accord-
ing to Dr. Moulton, “the traditional date (of
Zoroaster, 660-583 B. C.) is a minimum, but
there are strong reasons for placing Zarathustra
and his Gathas some generations earlier still.”
Again, the comparison between the development
of language from the Vedic hymns to the
Gathas and that from the Homeric Greek to
Classical Greek is not fair. The period in
question is the most eventful in the history of
Greece, when the rapid political and commercial

56 .

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

growth of the Greeks exercised a great influence
upon the development of 'their language, and
conditions were certainly different in India and
Persia. And even at the same time Attic Greek
was further from the primitive Hellenic language
than Doric or Aeolic. The changes of literary
Greek from the Attic days down to the present
day kave been much less rapid.. In any case,
it is to be feared that we attain from such a
comparison no result of value for Vedic
chronology.

“We do not hesitate to assign the composi-
tion of the bulk of the Brahmanas to the years
1400-1200 B. C., for the Samhita we require a
period of at least 500-600 years with an interval
of about two hundred years between the end
of the proper Brahmana period. Thus we obtain
for the bulk of the Samhita the space from
1400-2000. If we consider the completely
authenticated antiquity of several of the sacred
books of the Chinese, such as the original
documents, of which the Shu-king or Book of
History is composed, and the antiquity of the
sacrificial songs of the Shi-king, which all carry
us back to 1700-2200 B. C. it will certainly not
be surprising that we assign a similar antiquity
to the most ancient parts of the Vedas.” (Haug,
The Aitareya Brahmana).

“An estimate (i. e. of Haug) which, if we
take everything into account, is certainly not

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

57

too high, and which has tbt greatest claims to
probability^ is'that of Whitney OL St. 1,21, and
elsewhtfre, of 2000-1500 B. C. the first half of
the second thousand years B. C.; ” (Kaegi, The
Rigveda).

“The close relationship between the language
of Ihe Vedic Samhitas on the one hand and
Avesta and old Persian on the other does not
allow us to date the beginning of the Vedic
period back into a hoary age of many thousands,
to say nothing of millions of years B. C.

On the other hand, the facts of political,
religious and literary history require a period
of at least a thousand years and probably more
between the earliest hymns of the Rigveda,
and the latest parts of the old Upanishads and
the rise of Buddhism.” (Winternitz).

When the bulk of the Rigvedic hymns were
composed the Indo-Aryans had not advanced
much beyond the Jumna, were
having a deadly struggle with the
gration. natives of the soil, and evidently

had not entered India very long ago. At the
same time we must allow sufficient time for the
practically thorough occupation of the Punjab,
and the loss of memories about any outside
home as is revealed in the hymns. If the bulk
of the hymns were composed between 20001400
B. C., we shall not be very wrong if we believe
that the Aryans began to enter into India about
8

58

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

2300 or 2200 B. C. Let us see if there are any
other evidences to support this hypothesis.

Pargiter points out in his Dynasties of the
Kali Age that according to Pauranic accounts

Evidences of
the Pnnuias.

there were 30 Paurava, 29 Ikshaku
and 37 Magadhan kings in the in-
terval between the Kurukshetra

war and the accession of Mahapadma Nanda.
“Here we have safer ground, for the number of
kings in a dynasty was a much simpler matter
and more easily remembered than figures of the
lengths of reigns and dynasties; and this infor-
mation about ten contemporary dynasties elimi-
nates peculiarities and extravagances about
single dynasties and enables us to make prudent
calculations by means of averages of all ten.”
(Pargiter, Anc. Ind. Hist. Tr, p. 180). By cal-
culating backward from the date of Mahapadma
(about 400 B. c.) at the rate of 18 years for an
average reign, an average obtained by comparing
more than 20 genealogical tables of Asia and
Europe,* one arrives at the date 950 B. C. ap-
proximately for the Kurukshetra battle. More-
over, Jaina traditions represent the Tirthankara
Aristanemi as a contemporary of Krishna Vasu-
deva, and if we assume an interval of two
hundred years, which seems on general grounds
reasonable, between the Tirthankaras, Mahavira,

* 30 Andhra kings reigned for 450 years, and ao Vijay-
nagai kings for 250 years.

DATE OF INDaARYAN INVASIONS 59

Parsvanath, and Aristanemi, we get the tenth
century B. C. as the date of Aristanemi and so
of Krishna and of the Kurukshetra war.

“If we should seek to make an estimate of
the ages before the battle, it would be prudent
to take a smaller length for the average reign,
because only one line, that of Ayodhya, is
practically complete, while there are gaps in
the other dynasties so that there is little
scope for taking medium averages of all
the dynasties and eliminating peculiarities.”
(Pargiter, Anc. Ind. Hist. Tradition, p. 183).
In the absence of any checking means it is im-
possible to find out additions, omissions, and
overlappings. Even in historical times the men-
tion of the Andhra dynasty as succeeding the
Kanva dynasty and the inclusion of the Sakya
family and the Pradyota family in the dynasties
of Kosala and Magadha respectively in the
Puranas gave rise to not a little confusion
among the earlier investigators. So it is better
to take a lower average, say 12 years, for the
period before the Kurukshetra war. Now as the
Puranas give 93 kings to the Ikshaku dynasty
from Ikshaku the founder to Brihadbala, the
contemporary of the Kurukshetra war, the
approximate date of Ikshaku and the foundation
of the dynasty may be supposed to be about
2100 B. C. Of the princes of the Ikshaku
dynasty known to the Vedic hymn-makers are

60

THE ARYANI3ATIOM OF INDIA

Mandhatri, Purukutsa, Trasadasyu, Tryaruna,
etc., princes who number according to the
Puranas from the twentieth to thirtieth in
descent from the founder, and who, therefore,
may be believed to have flourished in the
19th and 1 8th centuries B. C. This also gives
a clue to Vedic chronology, and, if we suppose
Ikshaku to be the leader of an important, but
not necessarily the earliest, Indo-Aryan group
of settlers in India (as Cerdic or Ida in Eng-
land), a clue to the date of the coming of the
Indo-Aryan s.

About the middle of the 20th century B. C.,
according to Dr. H. R. Hall, a

^ans in tribe of men known as the Kassites
Western A«a. _

or Kossaeans with Surias (Sansknt

Surjyas) and Maryttas (Sanskrit Marut) as their

principal gods and speaking an Aryan dialect

conquered Babylon and ruled there till the

middle of the 13th century B.C.,when they were

overwhelmed by the Assyrian king Tukultini-

niv. About the same time another Aryan tribe

established themselves to the north-west in the

upper valley of the Euphrates undef the name

of Mitanni. Their kings bore names like Arta-

tama, Dusratta (Sanskrit Dasaratha), etc., and

worshipped the gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra,

Nasatyas. They remained in power till the

middle of the 14th century B.C. when they were.

conquered fay the Hittites. As regards the

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

61

powerful Hittites or Khatti of Asia Minor, who
for several centuries terrorised both Egypt and
Mesopotamia, it is still not certain to which race
they belonged. The suggestion has been made
that their language, which unfortunately has not
yet been deciphered, bears certain Indo-Euro-
pean characteristics. Anthropologists like Von
Luschan are inclined to connect the Hittites
with the Alpine race or the Celto-Slav peoples
of Europe. Hall points out that “the Hittite
deities are often accompanied by animals in quite
Indian fashion, and sometimes stand upon them.
...It may be that it was a feature borrowed from
Aryan religion.” These Hittites, who were
either Aryans or Aryanised natives, but certain-
ly not Semites, appear for the first time in his-
tory in the 20th century B. C., when they were
powerful enough to attack Babylon. In the
Tell-el-Amarna inscriptions we find such Aryan
names of princes as Artamanyu, Subandu, Su-
wardata, Sutarna, Jasadata and so forth, who
ruled in Palestine and Syria in the 1 5th century
B.C., but who had not been there before the 20th
century B. C., as we know from the Romance
of Sinehu and the inscriptions of the Middle
Kingdom of Egypt. Even after their downfall
in Mesopotamia and Syria the Aryans survived
in the east, and one of their family, the Medes,
remained long a thorn in the side of Assjma
until the overthrow of the latter and the estab-

62

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

lisbment of the Medo-Persian empire in West-
ern Asia.

From the history of Egypt too we learn that
the period from the 20th to the i6th century
B.C. was one of great turmoil and disturbances
in Western Asia, when strange peoples appeared
dislodging or conquering the old ones, and old
kingdoms tottered and fell like houses of cards.
The rapidity and violence of these irruptions,
far exceeding in extent and effect all earlier
movements of which we have any knowledge,
were probably due to the use of the horse by
the invaders both as steed and as milk-giver
to annihilate distance and commissariat diffi-
culties. The Egyptians and the Babylonians
became acquainted with the horse only after
these barbarian invasions. The picture present-
ed is similar to that which Europe witnessed
in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. on the appear-
ance of the Hun hordes and the rising of the
barbarians. The fate of Rome befell Egypt
too, and Egypt lay groaning and bleeding
under the heels of the conquering barbarians
from Asia from the i8th to the l6th century
B. C. These barbarians, the Hyksos or She-
ph^ds as the Egyptian historians call them,
were, so far as is known, a mixed Semitic
people from Syria who being pushed from
behind by new men, and probably mingled
with them, played a part in the history of

DATE OF INDO-ARYAN INVASIONS

63

Egypt almost similar to that of the Goths in
Roman history under the pressure of the Huns.
But, unlike the Romans, the Egyptians were
not yet rotten to the core, and after two centuries
of sufferings succeeded in shaking off the bar-
barian yoke and establishing the mighty New
Kingdom, which once more advanced upon
Syria and the Euphrates punishing and enslaving
their erstwhile conquerors. It is then when
the veil of darkness is lifted by the conquering
marches of the Thutmoseses that a new scene
presents itself to us in the 15th century —
Aryan dynasties ruling practically over the
whole of Western Asia from the Mediterranean
to the Persian Gulf, in Mesopotamia, Syria,
Palestine, and, if we accept the Hittitesas Aryan,
in Asia Minor. But as in Egypt so in Meso-
potamia the barbarian conquerors imposed them-
selves upon a highly organised and numerous
community with a hoary civilization behind
them, and, therefore, could not long maintain
themselves against a revival of national feeling.
The Semites soon found a champion in the king
of Assyria who put an end to the Aryan rule
in Babylon. Then between the two grindstones
of Egypt and Assyria the smaller Aryan ruler-
ships in Western Asia were crushed out of
existence. Thus all Aryan trace was lost in
Syria and Mesopotamia and the Semite there
became as supreme ever.

64

THE ARYANISATIOK OF INDIA

Now what do all these signify ? First of
all, the names of their gods Surjya, Mitra, Indra,
Nasatya suggest a very close affinity with the
Vedic Indians and very little with the other
branches of the Aryan family. It is certain that
they separated themselves from the Indo-Aryan
branch in the time of the Rigveda when the
older gods like Dyaus, Ushas of the Indo-
European period were passing into the back-
ground and the later gods like Vishnu and
Siva had not become important. Indra is a
typical god of the Rigvedic Indians. The word
Nasatya is truly Rigvedic. So the time of the
appearance of the Kassites and the Mitannians,
i. e. the 20th century B. C., must fall within the
Rigvedic period. And consequently the Rigvedic
period, which is believed to have lasted for five or
six hundred years, could not have begun earlier
than 2500 B. C., and ended later than 1500
B. C. Again, we know that the split between
the Indians and the Iranians took place in the
early Vedic, if not in the pre-Vedic, period,
and that in consequence there was such bitter-
ness caused that the Iranians deliberately
changed the Vedic gods into demons. If, as
some scholars assert, the Kassites and the
Mitannians betrayed in their dialects close
relationship with the Iranians, the fact that
they still worshipped Vedic gods and had not
in their language changed s into h showed

DATE OF INDO'ARYAN INVASIONS

65

that the Indo-Iranian split had either not
occurred in the 20th or 21st century B. C., or,
if it had, not much before that time.

From all these above considerations we

may infer that the Aryans began to pour

into India about the middle of

Pre-^anCm- t^e third millennium B. C. The
lisation m tlic , r i i i • i

Punjab. recent finds of the Archaeological

Department at Mohenjo Daro and Harappa
prove the existence of a civilisation in the
Punjab and Sind, which was not Aryan in charac-
teristics, but allied to the Sumerian of about
3000 B. C. (Illustrated London News, October
1924). As it has been suggested from a compari-
son of their physical types, burial customs, and
matriarchal systems* that the Sumerians belonged
to the Dravidian stock, it is quite reasonable
to believe that in the early part of the third
millennium B. C. the Aryans had not come and
driven away the Dravidians from the Punjab.

* Prof, Morgan in his Ancient Society and Prof. Sayce
in his Babylonians and Assyrians show that in Sumerian times
the woman was the head of the family.

9

CHAPTER IV

EXPANSION OF THE INDO-ARYANS
—THE DASYUS.

From the geographical names mentioned
in the Rigveda we learn that the Indo- Aryans
were at that time in possession
parts of Afghanistan, the Punjab,
veil. Kashmir, parts of Rajputana and

Sind, and had advanced as far as the Ganges.
Some twenty-five streams are mentioned, of which
the principal are the Sindhu (Indus), Vitasta
(Jhelum), Asikni (Chenab), Parushni (Ravi),
Vipasha ( Beas ), Satudru (Sutlej), Kubha
(Kabul), Suvastu (Swat), Krumu (Kurram),
Saraswati, Drishadvati, Yamuna, and Ganga.
The Himavanta or Himalayas were well-known
to the hymn-makers, but not the Vindhyas
and the Nerbudda, showing that they had not
advanced as far as these. Another evidence of
their unacqaintance with the eastern countries is
that the tiger, a characteristic animal of Eastern
India, is unknown, and that rice too is little
known. The important river Ganges is mentioned
directly but once, and probably marked the
easternmost limit of the Indo-Aryan advance.
Though some of the Vedic hymns were com-
posed on the banks of the Indus, e.g. the hymns

EXPANSION OF THE INDO ARYANS

67

to Ushas, which, if composed in India, must
have been done in the western Punjab, where the
dawn is comparatively a glorious phenomenon,
yet the centre of Rigvedic life lay to the east, on
the banks of the Saraswati, where the bulk of
the hymns were composed, and which river was
regarded as the most sacred and superseded
in importance even the Indus.

During the period of the later Samhitas

and the Brahmanas the Indo-Aryans had spread

over the land as far as the Vin-

^ension during dhyas on the south, and the con-
tne Branmana r ^ i i , •

Period. fines of Bengal on the east, and m

some points had penetrated into the Deccan on
the western side by way of Malvva and Gujarat.
The centre of life shifted eastward, and com-
prised the whole country between the Saraswati
and the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna,
which is called Madhyadesha or Middle Country.
While the eastern regions like Kosala (Oudh),
Kasi (Benares), and Videha (N. Behar) are
brought under Aryan influences and come into
prominence, the Punjab and the western coun-
tries correspondingly recede in impprtance,
and their tribes and their customs receive but
scant respect in the Brahmana literature.

(i). In the Satapatha Brahmana (I.4.1. 14-17)
there is a curious legend of Maihava the
Videgha carrying the sacrificial fire (i.e. sacri-
ficial worship of the Brahmins) from the banks

68

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

of the Saraswati over Kosala as far as the
Sadanira (modern Gandak), and after crossing
it, laying the foundation of a settlement
which came to be known as Videha after the
name of the tribe to which Mathava belonged.
The story probably indicates how the country
as far as the Sadanira was conquered in one
sweep, how the progress was checked for a
while, and how slowly an Aryan colony, Videha,
was founded across the river.

(2) . In a well-known hymn of the Atharva-
veda (V.22) takman or fever is delivered over
to the Gandharis, the Mujavants, the Angas,
and the Magadhas. The Vedic Aryans had
at that time evidently come into collision with
the non-Aryan tribes, Angas and Magadhas.
The Magadhas are associated in chapter XV of
the same book with Vratyas ( i. e. nomadic
peoples with strange languages and laws). The
Angas and the Magadhas were still resisting the
Aryans, and hence the great indignation of the
author. On the other hand, this passage shows
that the Brahmanical culture of the Indo-
Aryans of the Middle Country has already led
them to despise their more primitive brethren
of the west in the Indus valley.

(3) . In the Aitareya Brahmana (VII. 18)
Viswamitra speaks of the Andhras, Pundras,
Sabaras, Pulindas, and Mutibas as living on the
borders of the Aryan settlements. Of these the

EXPANSION OF THE INDO-ARYANS

69

Andhras, Sabaras and Pulindas are known from
the Mahabharata and the Puranas to have been
tribes of the Deccan, and the Pundras are
known in historical times to have their home
in Bengal. In modern times the Andhras are
the Telegu-speaking people of the Deccan, the
Sabaras are still found in a savage state on the
frontiers of Orissa, and the Pundras have
developed into the Pod caste of Bengal.

(4) . In the Aitareya Aranyaka (II.i.l) the
Vangas, Vagadhas and Cheras are called birds,
i.e. non-Aryans speaking languages which were
not intelligible to the Aryans. The Vangas
were certainly the inhabitants of Vangadesha or
Bengal, the Vagadha is either a misreading or
different reading of the word Magadha, and the
Cheras are known to be a wild tribe of the
Vindhya regions,

(5) . The Kaushitaki Upanishad (VI. i.)
gives a list of the principal Aryan tribes living in
India, viz, the Usinaras, the Vasas, the Matsyas,
the Kurus, the Panchalas, the Kasis, and the
Videhas. The land of the Usinaras in the
eastern Punjab and the land of the Videhas
in North Behar marked the western and
eastern boundaries respectively of the Indo-
Aryan world of the time. The western Punjab
and the trans-Indus lands by this time had come
to be regarded as barbarian.

(6) . Vidarbha, or modern Berar, is mentioned

70

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

in the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana (II.
440), and a Bhima, prince of Vidarbha, in the
Aitareya Brahmana (VII. 34. 9), proving that
the Aryans had during the Brahmana period
penetrated into the Deccan as far as Berar.

Thus before the close of the Brahmana
period in about 800 B. C. the whole of Northern
India as far as South Behar had been conquered,
and the Aryans had begun to penetrate into the
Deccan where at least one kingdom, that of
Vidarbha, had been established. The process
of conquest and colonisation is clearly observed
in Behar.

During the period from 800 B. C. to 500
B. C. the whole of Northern India had been
hdo-Aryan Ex- Practically Aryanised, though the
pansion from 800 process was still incomplete in
to 500 B. C. outlying parts, Sind, Kathiwar,

Gujarat on the west, and Bengal and Kalinga
(Orissa) on the east. The Punjab had farther
fallen from orthodoxy and in the estimation
of the Brahmins. Little headway was made in
the Deccan, where, besides Vidarbha, one or
two settlements had arisen on the Godavery.
Anga and Magadha had been completely
brought within the circle of Indo-Aryan
politics and culture.

(i). Baudbayana quotes older authorities
to state that the people of Sindhu, Sauvira,
and Surastra were of mixed origin, and also

EXPANSION OF THE INDO- ARYANS

71

directs that any one travelling to the countries
of the Kalingas, Pundras, Vangas, and Arattas
(Punjab) must perform a purihcatory sacrifice.

(2) . In the Ramayana^ Dasaratha is
advised by his priest Vasistha to invite among
others the kings of Anga, Magadha, Sindhu,
Sauvira,and Surastra to his horse sacrifice. There
are mentions in the book of Kalinga and
Vidarbha, but the knowledge shown about
the geography of the Deccan and Southern
India is very scanty, most of the area being
called Dandakaranya, which was inhabited by
Rakshasas and Banaras, i.e. various non-Aryan
communities.

(3) . Panini is acquainted with the names
of Kachchha (Cutch), Kalinga, and Asmaka
(on the Godavery), but evidently not with the
names of Pandya, Chola, Kerala, as otherwise
he could not have failed to give explanations
of the formation of such peculiar words, a
task undertaken by his commentators in later
times.

(4) . For the period just before the rise
of Buddhism (i. e. the seventh century B. C.)
we know from the Nikayas, which are assigned

* It is always unsafe to refer to the epics for the geogra-
phy of the epic period, as they received considerable additions
and modifications in later times. In this respect the
Mahabharata is worse than the Ramayana, and so I abstain
from referring to it for the political geography of the period.

72

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

by scholars like Rhys Davids to a time not
much later than Gautama Buddha, that the
following were the principal nations in
India — Anga, Magadha, Kasi, Kosala, Vajji,
Malla, Chedi, Vamsa, Kuru, Panchala, Machha,
Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara, Kamboja.
Vanga and Kalinga are not mentioned, though
the latter name finds a place in the list in later
Buddhist Texts.

(5). From the Chronicles of Ceylon it is
learnt that about the time of Gautama Buddha’s
birth Bejoy Sinha, a prince of Bengal, conquered
Ceylon and settled there. The Chronicles were
composed about one thousand years after the
event, and so we cannot rely much on this
tradition to show that Bengal had been
Aryanised in the 7th century B.C.

At the time of Alexander’s invasion, i.e.

r_x .• ii. »-• in the latter half of the 4th

Extent in the tune ^

of Alexander’s century B.C., the Aryan influence
invasion- spread over the whole of

India, including the extreme south, and
Ceylon.

(i). Katyayana’s explanations with regard
to the words Pandya, Chola, and Kerala,
supplementing the rules of Panini, show that
the Aryans had come into contact with these
peoples of Southern India during the time
intervening between Panini (about 500B.C.)
and Katyayana (about 350 B.C.)

EXPANSION OF THE INDO-ARYANS 73

(2) . The accounts in the Arthasastra of
Kautilya, the well-known minister of Chandra-
gupta, giving details of trade dealings in the
products of such countries as Vanga, Pundra,
Sindhu, Tamraparni (Ceylon), and the Tamil
countries of the south, show that all parts of
India were bound to each other by ties of
commercial relations and intimately known to
each other.

(3) . The Aryan influence had so much
spread in Southern India that, according to
Megasthenes ( about 300 B.C.), the Pandyas
called themselves the descendants of a daughter
of the Indian Hercules or Krishna. The name
Madura or Mathura of the Pandya capital lends
colour to this tradition, as Mathura in Northern
India was connected with the Yadavas and the
early life of Krishna, who belonged to the
Yadava family.

A good deal of confusion seems to have
arisen over the words Arya and Dasyu as they
were used in the Rigveda. This
^ little to the fact that
the original distinction between the
two in course of time became lost and Vedic
commentators in later times attached fanciful
meanings to them. Yaska explains the word
Arya as Iswaraputra, son of God, and Sayana
explains it as one who is learned and performs
the sacrifices, and the word Dasyu as a demon.
10

74

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

In later literature Arya came to mean noble,
and Dasyu a robber. But even then the
original meaning sometimes peeps out, as in
words like Arya-dharma and Aryavarta. The
Manusmriti preserves clear traces of the word
Arya being used to denote a distinct race. Thus
in the tenth book it is said, “All who are born
outside the castes produced from the head, arm,
thigh and foot of Brahma, whether they speak
Aryan or Mlechchha languages, are known to
be Dasyus,” Again, “A person begotten on a
non-Aryan woman by an Arya is an Arya in
qualities, while it is certain that a person be-
gotten on an Arya woman by a non- Aryan is a
non-Aryan,” In order to find out the original
meanings of the words we should look into the
Rigveda itself instead of depending on com-
mentators who wrote hundreds of years after
the composition of the hymns. The manner
in which the two words are used at once
suggests a contrast and distinction between two
species. Thus in Rig 1,51.8 Indra is invoked
to distinguish between the Aryas and those
who are Dasyus,” In I, 103. 3 “Cast thy dart,
Thunderer, at the Dasyu, increase the Arya’s
might and glory, Indra.” In X.86.19 Indra says,
“I come looking about me and distinguishing the
Dasas and the Aryas.” In 1 . 100. 18 Indra is said
to have destroyed the Dasyus and shared their
lands with the whites, and in II.li.iS “disclosed

THE DASYU

75

the light to light the Arya, and on the left
hand sank the Dasyu.” In Il.ii.ig the Arya
gains wealth subduing with the help of Indra
the foes, the Dasyus. In X.83.1 Manyu is
invoked to help the worshippers to successfully
fight their enemies, whether Arya or Dasyu.
From these and many other passages it becomes
clear to us that the word Arya and Dasyu
originally bore different meanings from those
suggested by later commentators. In some
places, however, the terms are applied to celes-
tial foes, demons, and not mortals, but that is a
secondary meaning. Evidently the hymn-makers
were Aryas who worshipped Indra and other
gods and prayed for the destruction of their foes,
the Dasyus. That these Dasyus or Dasas were
men of a different type, with different physical
characters and institutions, is obvious from their
being described as “black-skinned,” “devoid of
religious rites,” “of different rites," “of imperfect
speech”, “noseless” or flat-nosed, “rawflesh-
eaters,” etc. In Rig X.22. 8 the Rishi says, “We
live in the midst of the Dasyu tribes who do not
perform sacrifices, nor believe anything. They
have their own rites, and are not entitled to be
called ‘men.’ O Thou Destroyer of enemies,
annihilate them and injure the Dasas.” Yet
the Dasas were not savages and mean foes of
the Aryas. There are many references to their
fortresses of stone, their wealth, their powerful

76

THE ARYANBATION OF INDIA

tribes and kings. The combined efforts of Indra
and Agni demolish ninety fortified towns
(purab) ruled over by the Dasas (III. 12. 6). In
VIII. 40. 6 Indra is invoked to humble the
Dasa and distribute his accumulated treasure
among His worshippers. There was a Dasyu
king, Krishna, who lived on the banks of the
Jumna, and harrassed the Aryas with ten
thousand followers (VIII. 85 . 13 — 15)- The
Dasas are sometimes called “mayaban”, i.e. pos-
sessed of magical power or stratagem. The
Aryas were often hard-pressed and in their dis-
tress had to invoke the assistance of their gods
for victory.

Who were these Dasyus or Dasas ? Hillebrandt
Dravi- seems to think the word Dasa originally
denoted the Dahae people of the Caspian
Steppes, who gave much troubles to the Aryans
in Iran, and so came to signify a foe, a robber,
in which sense it is used in the Rigveda. What-
ever might have been the original meaning of
the word, it is certain that the word, except
where it is not used to denote a celestial foe,
is used in the Rigveda to denote a different race
of men, evidently natives of the soil as the
Aryans have been shown to have come to India
from outside. What race or races of men were
these Dasas ? There are strong reasons to think
that many of those whom the Aryans encountered
in the Indus and Ganges valleys wereDravidians.

THE DASYU

77

(1) Their physical characteristics, as given
in the Rigveda, namely, black skin and flat nose,
agree with those of the modern Dravidians.

(2) That the Dravidians at one time lived
in the Punjab and neighbouring countries is
inferred from the existence of a Dravidian-
speaking tribe, the Brahui, in Beluchistan, which
is the last remnant of an once prevailing Dravi-
dian population of Northern India, and not the
survival of a Dravidian colony from the distant
Deccan, “as a remote mountainous district may
be expected to retain the survivals of ancient
races while it is not likely to have been colo-
nized.”

(3) The changes which the Aryan language
underwent in India even when the Aryans were
confined to Northern India betray strong Dra-
vidian influences and support the inference that
the aboriginal Dasyus and Rakhas whom the
Indo-Aryans met in the Punjab and elsewhere
were mostly of the Dravidian race. Thus the
chief point which distinguishes the Vedic lan-
guage from the Avestan and other Indo-Euro-
pean languages is the presence of a second
series of dental letters, the so-called cerebrals.
“These play an increasingly important part in
the development of Indo- Aryan in its subsequent
phases. They are foreign to Indo-European
languages generally and they are characteristic
of Dravidian.” (Cam. Ind. Hist). “The lingual

78

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

consonants are essential component elements of
a large number of primitive Dravidian roots,
and are often necessary, especially in Tamil, for
the descrimination of one root from another ;
whereas in most cases in Sanskrit, the use of
cerebral consonants instead of dental, es-
pecially the use of the cerebral n instead of
the dental «, is merely euphonic” — (Caldwell).
Again, the presence of good many Dravidian
words in classical Sanskrit and even in Vedic
language, not to speak of modern dialects of
Northern India, is well-known. Thus the word
Matachi which occurs in the Chhandogya
Upanishad(I. lo. i.)is nothing but a Sanskritised
form of the Dravidian word midiche, meaning a
locust. And this Upanishad was composed at a
time when the Indo- Aryans had scarcely entered
the Deccan. Words like Khatta, couch or cot,
Kukkura, dog, Keyura, bracelet, Markata, monkey,
and many others have been traced to Dravidian
origin (Caldwell, Dravidian Languages, pp. 567 —
579). The Bengali language is indebted for a no
small portion of its vocabulary and structural
peculiarities to Dravidian languages. Thus the
commonplace words like Khoka (son), Talu
(scalp). No la (tongue), Meye (daughter), Minmin
(glimmering), Pillei (child), and plural suffixes
guli and gula have come from Dravidian sources.
Even in Hindi, many words of Dravidian
origin can be traced, such as jhagra, ata, etc.

THE DASYU

79

Hence there cannot be any doubt that the Dra-
vidians once constituted the main elements
of the population of Northern India before the
Aryanisation was effected. (Bhandarkar Lec-
tures).

(4) . The Dravidian influence is traceable
in religion too. The Rigvedic religion is
an almost pure Aryan religion, as a comparison
with the rites and ceremonies of the Iranians
and ancient Europeans would reveal. Of the
many innovations which the religion received
in later times the most important are beliefs
in spells and magic, phallus-worship and
snake-worship. Of these the first is a character-
istic of any demon-worshipping religion, and
cannot be precisely traced to Dravidian origin
alone, though we know that the religion of
the Dravidians even as late as the beginning
of the Christian era was a form of demon-
worship. But the other two can with more
precision be traced to the Dravidians in
whose religion they played a prominent part.
The Rigvedic Indians hated the phallus-worship-
pers, Sisnadevah, which evidently referred to
the Dasyus (VII. 21. 5), and their god Indra
killed the Serpent-demon Ahi (I. 103. 2).

(5) . The absence of any reference in the
Rigveda to the story of the Deluge, which
is vaguely mentioned for the first time in the
Atharvaveda, and later more fully described in

80

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

the Satapatha Brahmana, raises a suspicion that
it was not a part of the Indo-Aryan mythology
during the Rigvedic period. The story except
in minor details shows wonderful resemblance
to the story of the Deluge as was current
among the Sumerians and their cultural
successors, the Semites. Now the current
opinion, which is strengthened by the recent
discoveries at Mahenjo Daro and Harappa in
the Indus valley, is that the Sumerians and
the Dravidians belonged to the same stock,
and so we may believe that the Deluge story,
whether it referred to the submerging of the
continent of Lemuria or not, originally existed
with those peoples, from whom it was borrowed
by others. This belief finds support from an
examination of the details of the story in the
Sanskrit literature. The two principal elements
in the story are the mina^ fish, and nira,
water, and, curiously, both these words
are of Dravidian origin(Caldwell, pp.43, 57 1,573)-
The word for fish, Matsya, occurs only once in
the Rigveda, though various kinds of animals,
birds and insects, are so frequently mentioned
(Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, p. 143), while
fish played an important part in the mythology
of the Sumerians, and also in the pre-Vedic
Punjab, as evidenced by the recent discoveries
of fish representations there. Again, Satyavrata
ManUjthe Indian Noah, is called in the Bbagavata

THE DASYU

81

and other Puranas “the lord of Dravida.”
Further, in the accounts of the Deluge, as given
in the Matsya Purana, of all the rivers only the
Nerbudda, and not the more famous Ganges,
Jumna, Saraswati, or Indus, is preserved at the
Dissolution, and the mountain Malaya in the
extreme south is mentioned as the scene of
Manu’s austerities and of the apparition of the
fish. (Muir, Sanskrit Texts I, p 2 ig).

(6). The use of matronymic surname is almost
unknown among the Rigvedic sages and kings,
while patronymic is frequent, as in Purukutsa
Gairikshit, Kakshivant Ausija, Sudasa Paijavana.
But the frequent use during the Brahmana
period of matronymic surname, as in Satyakama
Jabala, Mahidasa Aitareya, Prasniputra Asuri-
vasin, Sanjiviputra, Krishna Devakiputra, along
with patronymic, as in Dhritarastra Vaichi-
travirya, Tura Kavasheya, Para Atnara, indi-
cates a growing influence upon the Aryan
society even while in the Gangetic valley of
the matriarchal Dravidian system.

From all these we may conclude that the
Dasas or Dasyus, who stubbornly, though un-
successfully, resisted the Aiyan
Pre-Dravuluiis. jjjyagjojjg tijg Punjab and the

Gangetic valley, were predominantly Dravidian
in culture. At the same time we must not
think that the Dravidians were the only natives
of Northern India at that time. Anthropometry
II

82

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

has revealed a‘ large Mongolian admixture in the
blood of the people of Eastern India and also,
to a smaller extent, of the upper Gangetic
valley. We know that immigrations from the
side of Thibet and Burma have taken place in
historical times. But then the people of North-
ern India, the descendants of Aryan conquerors
and Dravidian or Dravidianised natives, had
become so settled that no appreciable change
could have been effected in type by the new-
comers, who could not, as Risley observes,
descend much below the mountain heights
except in North-eastern Bengal and Assam.
So in order to explain the tendency towards
broad-head in Northern India we must
assume that a good percentage of the native
population of the Gangetic valley, especially near
the Himalayan ranges, at the time of the Aryan
invasions were Mongolian in blood. Side by
side with, and more important than, the Mongo-
lian element was another, which may be called
the oldest of the Indian population, the Munda-
Monkhmer race. Thurston, an authority on the
subject, says : “It is the Pre-Dravidian abori-
gines, and not the later and more cultured Dra-
vidians, who must be regarded as the primitive
existing race... .These Pre-Dravidians are differ-
entiated from the Dravidian classes by their
short stature and broad (platyrhine) noses. There
is strong ground for the belief that the Pre-

THE DASYU

83

Dravidians are ethnically related to the Veddas
of Ceylon, the Toalas of the Celebes, the Batin
of Sumatra, and possibly the Australians.”
(The Madras Presidency, pp. 124-125.) But
by the time of the coming of the Aryans they
had been conquered by the Dravidians, who
formed the ruling classes against whom the
Aryans generally fought, and had mostly be-
come Dravidianised in culture. To-day the
Gonds and the vast majority of the Pre-Dravi-
dian tribes speak Dravidian languages, which
they must have adopted before the coming of
the Aryans, while few like the Bhils speak
Aryan dialects, and fewer still like the Mundas
have retained anything like their primitive lan-
guage. Hence it is that the main influence
upon the conquering Aryan culture is found to
be Dravidian, and not Mongolian or Munda.
There were different strata of culture among
the mixed native population, from that of the
Dravidian Dasyu chiefs, who lived in towns and
fortresses, had an advanced political system,
and in intelligence were not inferior to
the Aryans, to that of the savage tribes with
filthy habits, ugly features, nomadic life, still
not advanced beyond the hunting and fishing
stage, men who were given the names of
Nishada, Chandala, etc. by the Aryans, and were
regarded as untouchables even at a t;me when
the restrictions regarding marriage ^d food had

84

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

been very slight among the Aryan folk. They
had been as it were the Sudras of the Dravidian
society, and when the Dravidians themselves
were reduced to the position of Sudras by the
conquering Aryans the older Sudras descended
to the position of Panchamas or fifth varna.
The Pauranic description of the Nishadas as
“black like crow, very low-statured, short-armed,
having high cheek bones, low-topped nose, red
eyes and copper-coloured hair, living in hills
and forests,” (Padma Purana II. 27, 42-43;
Bhag. Pur. IV. 14. 44; Mhb. XII . 59. 94 - 97 )>
agrees more with what we know of the Gonds,
Bhils, Oraons, Mundas, etc. than with that of
the more cultured Dravidians, (Chanda, Indo-
Aryan Races).

CHAPTER V

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION.

From what we have already said it would
appear that the first wave of Indo- Aryan invasion
was in the nature of a tribal
In the Panjab. migration from the side of Af-
ghanistan, when a vast horde with their women,
children and cattle entered India, and at once
began an exterminating war with the natives
of the soil, like the Anglo-Saxons in South-
eastern Britain about three thousand years
later (the parallelism would have been more
apt had the Britons belonged to a non-Aryan
stock). Their knowledge of harder metals and
horse-riding, together with their superior physical
strength, gave them a great advantage over their
foes. But the latter inspite of their disadvan-
tages offered, like the Britons, a very stout,
though unavailing, resistance to the invaders,
and many Anderidas were witnessed on the
soil of the Punjab, as hinted in Rigveda IV.
16.13, where Indra is said to have killed fifty
thousand black foes, and VII. 5.3, where
fire is said to have pierced the citadel
of the enemy, when the black people came out
pellmell through consternation and distress,
leaving all their belongings. Those who escaped

86

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

the fire and sword of the invaders must have
fled to the east and south leaving a clean
country to them as far as the modern Sirhind,
where the Indus plain ends and Gangetic plain
begins. This is the first stage of the Indo-
Aryan colonisation, when, like the Anglo-
Saxons in South-eastern Britain, the invaders
made a clean sweep of their foes and received
very little admixture of native blood, as is
evident from the prevailing Indo-Aryan type
in the Punjab even in modern times. Very
few of the Rigvedic hymns can be traced to
this period.

When the bulk of the hymns were composed,
the second stage had begun. The Indo-Aryans
had been thoroughly settled in
Madhya- Punjab and had lost touch

with their kinsmen abroad. In
their new home different tribes had settled in
the different parts of the country, and, besides
fighting with the Dasyus, had begun to fight
among themselves for supremacy. The force of
bursting flood had abated no doubt, but was still
strong enough to impel the Indo-Aryan chieftains
towards the east and south-east conquering
fresh lands from the aborigines. The number of
conquerors, however, was not sufficient to
effectively occupy the conquered lands, and as
specially the conquerors felt the need of women
and labourers in their new settlements the

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION 87

original ferocity and the ruthless policy of
extermination were to a certain extent modified.
They began to make slaves, mostly of the wives
and children of the fallen natives. Even in
the Rigvedic period towards its close the word
Dasa gradually came to be synonymous with
a slave, as in the proper name Divodasa, “the
slave of heaven.” In the next period the word
Dash regularly denoted a female slave. Slaves,
sometimes in large numbers, are often alluded
to in the Rigveda, and to the native slaves may
be attributed the marked Dravidian influence
upon the Vedic language.

Whether it was a later immigration of
Indo-Aryans who could not on account of the
difficult route bring their womenfolk with them
and so had to marry Dravidian wives in the
Gangetic regions — as is the theory of Hoernle,
supported by Grierson and Risley— or, as is
more probable, it was the natural expansion
of the Indo-Aryans from the Punjab after the
tribal immigration had ceased from outside,
and was more of conquest than of colonisation,
the fact remains that in the Gangetic regions
the Indo-Aryans received a large admixture
of Dravidian blood, which accounts for the
lower stature, darker complexion, and broader
nose of the Gangetic Indian than those of the
Punjabese. • In the later Rigvedic period the
original hatred of the conquerors towards the

86

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

natives had so far abated that it was not rare
that treaties and alliances were made and one
oi* more Indo-Aryan tribes allied themselves
with Dasa chiefs against the foes of their own
race. A Dasa tribe, the Simyu, was among
the foes of the famous Sudas in the battle of
the ten kings (VII, 18.5). A priest celebrates
the generosity of a Dasa chief, Balbutha (VIII.
46.32). In short, the scene presented by the
Rigveda is not much unlike that of the Hep-
tarchic period of English history, when the
Anglo-Saxons were no more coming from the
Baltic shores, were settled under different
tribal chiefs in different parts of the country
from which the British elements were practically
wiped out, were still encroaching upon
British lands and winning victories, like those
of Deorham and Chester, but absorbing more
and more British blood as they advanced
more and more towards the west, and not unoften
making alliances with British chiefs like
Cadwallon in their own intertribal wars. By
the end of the Rigvedic period the Indo- Aryans
had advanced as far as the Ganges and were
engaged in subjugating the country between
j the Jumna and the Ganges. The principal
tribes still lived to the west of the Jumna.
But in the next period we find that the more
important of the tribes were planted in the land
between the Saraswati and the Ganges.

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION

89

Thus it is seen that there was a marked
contrast between the Indo-Aryan settlement
in the Punjab and that in the Gangetic regions
as far as North Behar. While in the Punjab
it was a settlement en masse by clearing the
country thoroughly of all non- Aryan elements,
in the Gangetic regions it was a matter of
conquest in which the non- Aryan system was
destroyed, their fighting forces broken, and their
women and children enslaved. But even in
the latter the predominant element was Aryan.
Aryan tribes like Panchala, Vamsa, Chedi,
Kosala, Videha settled themselves as rulers and
absorbed the native population. Yet in this
process of absorption the Indo-Aryan social
system underwent a great change. It may be
paradoxical to hear that the more contact there
was between the Aryan and the non- Aryan the
greater was the barrier imposed against their
mingling. In the Punjab, where the non-Aryan
element was practically wiped out, there was
no danger of the purity of Aryan blood being
affected, and so we do not find any regulations
in the Kigveda forbidding intermarriage between
an Aryan and a Dasyu, between a master and
a slave, though, of course, such intermarriages
must have been rare because of the hatred and
contempt with which the conquerors regarded
the natives. But the case became otherwise
in the Gangetic regions. There were numerous
12

90

. THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

non-Aryaijs still in the country both as slaves
and enemies, and if free intercourse were not
checked, the danger was the swamping of the
conquerors by the conquered. The question
was the same as that of colour in the modern
European colonies in Africa and America.
Two courses were open to the Indo-Aryan
conquerors, either to exterminate the natives
wholesale, or to Aryanise them but with a
careful eye to prevent themselves being bar-
barised in the course of their work. They
adopted the latter policy and solved their
diflSculty by evolving the caste system. Already
there were three classes in the Indo-Aryan
society in the Punjab — the priest, the ruler,
the cultivator and artisan. To these a fourth class,
that of the slaves or Sudras, was added, and
eventually a fifth, the Nishada, comprising the
savage peoples of the hills and forests. While
there were still free intercourses between the
first three classes, there was a barrier raised bet-
ween the first three and the fourth, not to speak
of the fifth. Thus the non-Aryans were given a
status in society and prevented from extermina-
tion, but they were not to spoil the purity of
their rulers’ blood. It was all right in theory,
but it ran the risk of almost breaking down in
practice. While you allow the Aryans and the
non- Aryans to live together in society you can
not altogether prevent intercourse, say^ between

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION

91

the masters and the female slaves, especially
among the ordinary people. Thus the Vaisya
caste become largely affected by non-Aryan
blood, and less so were the Kshatriya* and the
Brahmin. Hence the caste system became
rigid in the Gangetic plains, which gave a new
turn to the Indo-Aryan social organisation.
The Punjabee Aryan was not so circumstanced
and so could not keep pace with the social
changes which were going on in the Madhya-
desha, and in course of time came to be regarded
as unorthodox. Again, the Brahmins becoming
more and more exclusive devoted more time to
the elaboration and development of their ritua-
lism, on which rested their claims to superiority
and power. So the rites and ceremonies became
extremely elaborate, complicated and mechanical,
and tended to make the cleavage between a Brah-
min and a layman still greater. Hence the Madhya-
deshaorthe Upper Gangetic regions evolved the
peculiar Brahmanical religion and social structure,
and became the model country for all ages.

The story of the conquest of Magadha,
Anga, Vanga, Pundra, Kalinga, etc. was al-
together different. There were
In Eastern India, pg^^gj-fui non-Aryan communities

in these lands (which are named after them) who
are mentioned as independent in some of the

*The Vedic Kshatnya meant a member of the ruling or
princely class and not an orciinary warrior.

92

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

Brahmanas. How these conquests were made
is not known to us. But this much we know that
no powerful Aryan tribe settled and absorbed
the conquered in any considerable part of these
lands. Let me again draw an analogy from Eng-
lish history. We knowhow the two Wales’ were
conquered, how to the main Celtic population
a sprinkling of Anglo-Saxon blood was added,
how the population and the social structure
remained in the main Celtic. Magadha was
something like the March land where the ab-
sorption of the conquerors’ blood was more
than in other parts. The non- Aryans of East-
ern India were no doubt conquered, and, so far
as their language and religion were concerned,
Aryanised, but they had not become slaves
en masse of their conquerors as in the upper
valley of the Ganges, and had not wholly lost
their old tribal and social organisations. We hear
of the same Vangas, Pundras, Kalingas, etc. in
historical times as before their conquest in the
later Vedic period. Even in language, such as
in the modern Bengali dialect, the Dravidian
traces are to be found to a greater extent than
in the languages of Upper India. In social
structure Eastern India could never adapt itself
to the models of the Madhyadesha, and hence
we find the population mainly divided between
the Brahmins and the Sudras with no inter-
mediate Castes between them.

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION 93

The fact that Eastern India was imperfectly
Aryanised partly accounts for the rise of the
two great protestant religions, Jainism and
Buddhism, in that quarter about the time when
the process of conquest was still going on.
The protests against the Brahmin ical hierarchy
and rituals so boldly preached by Mahavira and
Gautama Buddha in Behar can easily be inter-
preted as a reaction against the imposition of
Brahminical belief and institutions upon a not
very willing people, conquered but not van-
quished. Hence it is why we find Behar
as the earliest land to accept the new creeds,
and as the last stronghold of Buddhism
before it finally disappeared from India. It is
here in Eastern India that we find the develop-
ment of the un-Vedic Tantric religion, and here
' that Islam which knocked itself in vain against the
Brahminical sacerdotalism of the Madhyadesha
found the greatest number of converts.

The non-Aryan protest did not spend itself
up only in religion and social matters. Maha-
padma Nanda rose as their champion to over-
throw the rule of the Kshatriya families in
Magadha. He was admittedly of Sudra or non-
Aryan origin, and he so terribly punished the
Aryan ruling classes that he has been described
in the Puranas as “the exterminator of the
Kshatriya race like a second Parasurama.”
Certainly he did not do so in the interest of the

94

THE ARYAN ISATION OF INDIA

Brahmin caste, as in that case the Brahmin writers
of the Puranas would not have poured their choi-
cest invectives upon him, and the whole period
of Nanda rule would not have been omitted
from the Calendar (Ananda era). Such was
the havoc he caused among the Kshatriya
families of the Gangetic valley that the Brah-
mins could only overthrow his family by
setting up another Sudra, Chandragupta Maurya,
For a time, of course, Chandragupta acted
under the influence of his patron Brahmin
minister, Kautilya or Chanakya, but it is very
probable that he too in his later life dissociated
himself from Brahminism and became a convert
to Jainism. And it was his grandson Asoka
who by vigorously espousing the cause of
Buddhism gave the greatest blow which Brah-
minism had yet received in India. Only four
centuries ago another strong attack against
Brahminical hierarchy and ritualism was made
by Chaitanya in Bengal. The spirit of protest
is still strong in the Bengalee blood, which
manifests itself from time to time, as in the ‘
Brahmo Samaj Movement of only half a century
ago. But inspite of these actions and reactions
the non- Aryan in Eastern India has been slowly
and unconsciously drawn within the octopus
clutches of Brahminism, and to-day no Bengalee
« would like to regard himself as any but des-
cended from the pure Aryan stock.

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION 95

With regard to Northern India it may be
said with more or less truth that the Aryani-

sation was effected principally

In the Deccan. .1 „ , .. n ^

through conquest. But the case

seems to be entirely different in the south.
Of course there were migrations of Aryan tribes
or families from Northern India who established
themselves as conquerors over the native
population in some parts of the country. Thus
we learn from the Brahmanas that the Bhojas
ruled in Vidarbha or Berar, from the Artha-
sastra that the Bhojas once ruled over the
Dandaka or Maharastra country, and from the
Jagayyapeta inscriptions that an Ikshaku dynas-
ty governed in the Kistna District in the third
century A. D. Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar holds
that the Pandyas were emigrants from the
Muttra District. Yet on the whole the process
of Aryanisation was carried on mostly by peace-
ful means. The route from Northern India to
the Deccan across the hilly and forest regions
of Chota Nagpur and the Central Provinces
being extremely difficult, the Aryan stream
gradually thinning the more it moved from its
base in Upper India, and, above all, the Dravi-
dian community in possession of the Deccan
being too strong to be forcibly subjugated, most
parts of the Deccan remained practically inde-
pendent under their own Dravidian rulers. But
it cannot be said that to-day the Tamil country

96

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

is less Aryan in sentiment than other parts of
India. Who, then, brought the Aryan culture
to the Dravidians of Southern India ?

If we may believe in the tradition as record-
ed in the Epics, the Rishis or Brahmin sages
took a most prominent part in the diffusion of
Aryan culture in the south often at considerable
risks to their lives. Thus when Rama went to
the south he found in many places the asramas
or hermitages of Brahmin sages far away from
Aryan land and constantly harrassed by the
Rakshasas or the native non-Aryans. These
Aryan missionaries did not resort to physical
force, and went on with their work with the
utmost patience, courage and unselfishness. In
course of time some of the non-Aryans must
have been attracted by their superior wisdom
and virtuous lives, and become their worshipful
allies. Thus, though the Rakhasas in general
were in hostile opposition to Brahminical insti-
tutions, not so was Vibhisana, brother of
Ravana, nor were the Banaras of Kiskindhya,
one of the non-Aryan tribes. Among such
missionary sages the most prominent was
Agastya, who was met by Rama in a hermitage
to the south of the Vindhyas. He became so
successful in spreading culture among the Dra-
vidians of Southern India that in later times he
came to be regarded by the Tamil people as
■* the founder of their language and to be

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION 9 ?

known as Tamirmuni or Tamilian sage.
(Bhandarkar Lectures).

In the Deccan, therefore, there are three
different shades of Aryan permeation. In the
first place are the Maharastra country and
Berar. They were conquered, and Indo-Aryan
ruling families, chiefly of the Yadu tribe, settled
there, imposing their tongue and creed upon
the mass of Dravidian 'population, who had been
already conquered by brachycephalic tribes
probably from Iran. The latter formed the upper
classes in the land, and when it was conquered
by the Indo-Aryans were entirely amal-
gamated with them. Hence we see that the
higher classes, the Brahmins and the ruling
castes, are more brachycephalic, but in other
respects, as in nose form, tallness and com-
plexion, approximate more to the people of the
Gangetic valley than the mass of the people
who approximate more to the Dravidian type.
(Risley, People of India, Appendix IV).

In the second place comes the Telegu-speak-
ing or Andhra country. This land did not long
remain under Aryan rule, but being exposed
to Aryan influences from two sides, Berar and
Kalinga, became Aryanised not only in creed
but also to a certain extent in language. The
bulk of the population is almost pure Dravidian,
but the language has about a third of its voca-
bulaiy derived from Aryan roots. Most of the

»3

98

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

borrowed words relate to abstract or scientific
and religious terms, which supports the tradition
of the missionary work by Brahmin sages.
That the contact was slight is proved by the
fact that the words relating to common-place
things and ideas are mostly Dravidian, and that
the grammatical rules are entirely different from
those of Sanskrit, and this inspite of the well-
known fact that “when an Aryan tongue comes
into contact with an uncivilized aboriginal one,
it is invariably the latter which goes to the
wall” ( Grierson ), a fact which is amply
corroborated by the cases of imperfectly Arya-
nised Bengal, Assam and Maharastra.

Still more free from Aryan influences is the
Tamil country. Even as late as the times of
the Mauryas the ordinary religion of the Tami-
lians was a form of demon-worship, and Brahmi-
nism had not made much headway among them.
The first great Aryan influence came with the
spread of Buddhism and Jainism together with
their literature from Northern India, and by the
time these two religions gave way to Hinduism
the creed of the Tamil land had been practically
Aryanised, and Brahminical institutions laid on
a solid foundation. The language, however,
has not been much influenced. It contains a
very small number of Sanskrit words, and a
Tamil composition is regarded as refined and
classical not in proportion to the amount of

NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION

99

Sanskrit it contains but in proportion to the
absence of Sanskrit. It is worthy of note, too,
that while in other parts of India the authors
were mostly Brahmins, most of the compositions
in classical Tamil literature were the works of
Sudras. While the Telegu-speaking peoples
might have received a sprinkling of Aryan blood,
the Tamilian non-Brahmins are almost all of
pure Dravidian origin. The Brahmins in general
still retain memories of their immigrations from
the north and have jealously guarded themselves
against contact with the natives.

There are, however, evidences that the Aryan
influences were stronger in the Deccan in the
first few centuries of the Christian era than in
modern times. Thanks to the conquest of the
Deccan by the Mauryas and the spread of
Buddhism there, a Prakrit dialect obtained wide
currency even in those parts where Dravidian
languages are spoken at the present day. Thus
Asoka’s Minor Rock Edicts found in the Chi-
taldurg District, the donative inscriptions in
some Buddhist stupas in the Kistna District (150
B. C. to 200 A. D.), the Malavalli stone inscrip-
tion in the Kanarese country, and some copper-
plate grants of the Pallava kings of Kanchi, all
prove that an Indo-Aryan dialect, Prakrit, in
which these inscriptions are written was the
official language and was at least intelligible
to all classes of people in many parts of even

100

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

Southern 'India. The instructions of Asoka
were intended for all classes of men, high and
low, and must have been couched in a language
whieh was generally understood. The dona-
tions mentioned in the stupa inscriptions of
'Kistna concerned even such low-class people
as leather-workers. One of the Pallava char-
ters issues instructions not only to the higher
officials but to ordinary free holders and even
cowherds. Such was the Aryan influence in
Southern India at that time that Aryan proper
names were used not only by many rulers, as
the Pallavas of Kanchi, but even among the
lower classes, as in the Kistna inscriptions.
The spread of Aryan language and ideas and the
infiltration of Aryan blood had been steadily
proceeding, and there was every likelihood that
Southern India would be as much Aryanised
as Bengal or Maharastra, and that the Dravidian
culture would be completely lost except where
it was incorporated in the conquering one.
But the failure of the northerners to maintain
their political suzerainty over the south for a
considerable length of time, the rise of strong
Dravidian powers like the Andhras, the Pallavas,
the Cholas, who instead of submitting to Aryan
rule even carried their victorious arms into the
north, and, above all, the Mahomedan conquest
of Northern India which destroyed the fountain-
spring of Aryan colonisation and inspiration,

- NATURE OF ARYAN COLONISATION 101

not only checked the progress of Aryanisation
but evfen caused the loss of some vantage
ground which had been won by the Indo-
Aryans in the south. Hence there is a greater
self-assertion of the Dravidian in modern times.

CHAPTER VI

TRIBES AND KINGDOMS OF
THE RIGVEDA.

fharata.

The most important of the Rigvedic tribes
seems to be the Bharatas, who in afterages
have given the name to the whole
country, Bharatavarsha or India,
They were settled in the country between the
Saraswati and the Jumna, and fought both
against their Aryan rivals on the west and
non- Aryan foes on the east. Their princes
are found sacrificing on the Saraswati, on
the Drishadvati, on the Apaya, in the
land which afterwards became celebrated as
Kurukshetra. The victories of the Bharata
princes and the poetical fame of their Rishis
together served to acquire for the cult of
the Bharata people a kind of acknowledged
supremacy. Agni is Bharata, i.e. belonging to
the Bharatas. Bharati is the protecting deity
of the Bharatas, in connection with whom the
sacred river Saraswati is constantly mentioned.

The next in importance were the Purus,
who lived on either side of the Saraswati and
were neighbours and rivals of
the Bharatas, In later Rigvedic
times these two rival tribes became thoroughly
amalgamated, and under the name of Kuru,

Para-

TRIBES AND KINGDOMS OF THE RIGVEDA 103

a name not directly mentioned in the Rigveda,
became the chief bearers of the Vedic culture
during the later Vedic period. According to
Pargiter, who follows the Epic and Pauranic
tradition, the Purus and the Bharatas were two
branches of one family who were engaged in
rivalry when some of the Rigvedic hytans
were composed. They were united un(^r
Samvarana and his son, the famous Kuru, who
gave the name to his family and also to the
people. (Ancient Indian Historical Tradition,
p. 281).

There was a comparatively unimportant
tribe known as the Krivi, who at first might
^ . . „ . . have lived on the Indus and the

Kriviy Snnjflyd* i i i i i

Ghenab, but later moved to the
east across the Jumna to the land which after-
wards became known as Panchala (S. P. Br,
XIII. 5-4-7)- Closely connected with the Bha-
ratas was the tribe of Srinjaya, who lived in
the neighbourhood of the Bharatas, probably in
the Panchala country,i.e. the modern Rohilkhand
tract.

Among the allies of the Purus against the
Bharatas were the Anus who dwelt on the
Parushni or Ravi, and the kindred
Druhyus who lived to their west,
and the two allied tribes of Yadu
and Turvasha, who lived in the southern Punjab,
and probably further south as the traditional

t04

THE ARYANISATION OE INDIA

Mabya.

home of the Yadavas in the Epics and Puranas
lay from Gujarat to Muttra.

Another people were the Matsyas whose
wealth drew upon them an attack of the Tur-
vashas ( Rig VII. i8.6 ). The
riches of the Matsyas, especially
their wealth of cows, made them victims even
in Epic times of predatory raids by the Tri-
garttas and the Kurus. We know that in later
times the Matsyas lived in the neighbourhood
of the Surasenas of Mathura to the west, i.e.
in modern Alwar and Jaypur, and that was
probably their home even in the Rigvedic age.

Among the lesser tribes were the Alinas,

Pakthas and Bhalanases, all living in the

— . frontier regions. In the later Rig-

Cnedi, Usinara. , , ,

vedic penod two peoples, who

played rather important parts in the Brahmana
and Epic periods, first come into notice — ^the
Chedis who dwelt in the land between the Jumna
and the Vindhyas, and theUsinaras in the neigh-
bourhood of the Saraswati. The Chedi king
Kasu is praised in a Danastuti (VIII. 5.37'39)*
He seems to be a very powerful king who
made a gift of ten rajas as slaves to his priest.
In the Pauranic tradition the Chedis are
represented as an oflfshoot of the Yadus, and
the Usinaras of the Anus, and there is nothing
in the Rigveda to indicate that the Chedis
or the Usinaras were a tribe and not a clan.

TRIBES AND KINGDOMS OF THE RIGVEDA 1 05

Among the Dasa tribes were the Kikatas,
Simyus, Ajas, Yakshus, and Sigrus, who were
T *be$. inhabitants of the Gangetic

valley, and were contesting the
advance of the Bharatas towards the east and
south-east. Individual Dasa kings were Ilibisha,
Dhuni, Chumuri, Sambara, Varchin, Dribhika,
Rudhikra, Anarsani, Sribinda, etc., some of
whom later received demoniacal attributes and
became celestial foes of Indra and other gods.

A curious people were the Panis, who are
described in the Rigveda as “greedy like the
wolf,” “extremely selfish,” “nig-
gardly,” “non-sacrificing," “of
cruel speech,” “Dasyus” (VII. 6.3). They

were also notorious cattle-possessors (i.e.
wealthy, cattle constituting the main wealth
and currency of the time), and cattle-lifters,
and the name is often used to denote a class
of demons who withheld the water of the
clouds like cows from the Aryans. The word
seems to live in such Sanskrit words as Panik
or Vanik (merchant), Panya (merchandise),
Bipani (shop), etc., from which we may infer
that the Panis were the merchants par excellence
in the Rigvedic age. Their patron god seems
to be Vala, whom Indra pierced when he
robbed the Pani of his cows (Rig I.62.4 ; X.67,6),
One of their kings was Bribu (VI.45.31).
The phonetic resemblances of the words Pani

*4

106

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

and Punic, Vala and the Phoenician god Baal,
Bribu and Baberu or Babylon, together with
their peculiar characteristics and the fact of their
being chased back towards the west (VII. 6. 3),
may well tempt us to identify the Panis with
the Phoenicians, who formerly lived near the
Persian Gulf and traded in the Arabian Sea
before their migration to the Mediterranean
coast.

Divodasa, “the servant of heaven,” the Ati-
thigva, “the sacrificer of cows for guests,” was

Divodasa. ^ great king of the Bharata tribe,*
who successfully fought against
the Purus, Yadus and Turvashas on one hand,
and the Dasa chief Sambara, the Panis etc. on
the other. He was the patron of the priestly
family of the Bharadvajas, the authors of the
sixth book of the Rigveda.

His descendant was the famous king Sudas,
son of Pijavana. At first Sudas’ priest was Viswa-
mitra, who himself was a scion of

Sodas. Kusika family of the Bharata

tribe (Ait. Br. VII. 17 — 18), and who led him
to victories on the Vipasha and Satudru, as
described in the third book of the Rigveda, the
whole of which is attributed to the Viswamitra

* For the identification of the Tritsus with the Bharatas
see Oldenberg, Buddha, pp. 405-406, Macdonell and Keith,
Vedic Index I.p.363.

TRIBES AND KINGDOMS OF THE RIGVEDA 107

family. But for some reason or other, probably
on account of the superior Brahminical know-
ledge of the Vasisthas (Kath. Br. XXXVII. 17.
117 ; S. P. Br. XII. 6. 1. 38), Sudas appointed
Vasistha in place of Viswamitra as his priest.
Hence arose the long and bitter rivalry between
the two families, and the imprecations uttered by
Viswamitra (Rig III. 53. 21 — 24). The Vasis-
thas in the seventh book of the Rigveda pray
for the prosperity of Sudas and celebrate his
glorious victories on the Parushni over the ten
allied tribes, the Purus, Yadus, Turvashas,
Anus, Druhyus, Alinas, Pakthas, Bhalanases,
Sivas, and Vishanins. Such was the bloody and
decisive victory that the Anu and Druhyu kings
fell in the battle, and so also probably Puru-
kutsa, the Puru king, whose wife was reduced
to great distress, from which she was afterwards
relieved by her son Trasadasyu. Sudas also
turned his victorious arms against the non-Aryan
tribes, the Ajas, Sigrus and Yakshus, who were
united under a king, Bheda, who attacked the
kingdom of Sudas from the east while probably
the latter was fighting against his Aryan foes
on the west. Sudas quickly returned and de-
feated them with great slaughter on the Jumna.
Sudas was not only a great warrior but also a
scholar, as tradition credits him with the com-
position of the hymn 133 of the tenth book.
All this while Viswamitra had not remained

108 TUE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

idle. He was assisted ia acquiring more Brah-
minical knowledge by the priestly family of
Jamadagni, to whom he expresses his indebted-
ness in Rig III. 53. 15 — 16. He then began
to accuse Vasistha of various heinous crimes,
which the latter denies on oath in Rig VII.
104. 12 — 16. Yet Viswamitra seems to have
regained ascendancy in the Bharata court.
According to the Taittiriya Samhita (Ashtaka
VII ) and the Kaushitaki Brahmana (4th
Adhaya) the sons of Sudas killed a son of
Vasistha and were destroyed by the indig-
nant father. Manu is evidently mistaken
when he charges Sudas instead of his sons
with outrages committed upon Brahmins (VII.
41). Vasistha probably effected the destruction
of the family of Sudas with the help of the
Purus, as henceforth the Puru kings like
Trasadasyu, Trikshi, Kurusravana, Upamasravas,
etc. come into more prominence. This fact
can be traced in the confused accounts in the
Mahabharata (Adiparva, verses 3725-37) of the
Puru king Samvarana being assisted by Vasistha
in recovering his power and defeating his
enemy, the Bharata king of Panchala. Sam-
varana’ s son was the famous Kuru after whom
his family and the people ruled by him came
to be known. Curiously, the names of Bharata
and Puru were merged in the name Kuru
within a few generations from Sudas and

TRIBES AND KINGDOxMS OF THE RIGVEDA J09

Trasadasyu, as is found in the later Samhitas
and the Brahmanas.

A later king is Santanu for whom Devapi
performed a rain-inducing sacrifice (Rig X. 98).

The Mahabharata and the Puranas
describe Santanu as the Kuru
king of Hastinapur and the grand-
father of the Pandavas, and Devapi as his elder
brother who became an ascetic (Adiparva,
3750 ; Vishnu Purana IV. 20.7). Weber (In-
dische Studien, I.203), however, considers that
the Santanu and Devapi of the Mahabharata
and the Puranas cannot be the same persons
as those alluded to in the Rigveda, because
their father was Pratipa, not Rishtisena as
mentioned in the above hymn, and because
it is doubtful whether a prince who was so
near to the Mahabharata war in point of time
could have been named in a Rigvedic hymn.
There is nothing in the Rigveda to indicate that
Devapi was a prince.

CHAPTER VII

LATER DEVELOPMENTS OF
TRIBES AND KINGDOMS.

During the period of the later Samhitas

and the Brahmanas the Bharatas and the Purus

have disappeared as separate tribes

Km^Parilabit found united under a

and Janamejaya. . .

new name, Kuru. Reminiscenes,

however, of the past greatness of the Bharata
tribe are met with here and there, as in the
accounts in theSatapatha Brahmana(XIII.5.4-i ^ ■
12) of Bharata Dauhshanti who performed a
horse sacrifice and defeated his enemies on the
Ganges and the Jumna. The first great Kuru
king is Parikshit (a descendant of Kuru ac-
cording to Epic and Pauranic traditions), who is
mentioned in the Atharvaveda (XX.127.7-10),
and in whose reign, it is said, the Kuru kingdom
flourished exceedingly. “Listen ye to the high
praise of the king who rules over all peoples,
the god who is above mortals, of Vaisvanara
Parikshit ! Parikshit has procured for us 4
secure Swelling when he, the most excellent
one, went to his seat. (Thus) the husband in
Kuru land, when he founds his household,
converses with his wife.

. . “What may ,I ^bring [to thee, curds, stirred

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

III

drink or liquor ? (Thus) the wife asks her
husband in the kingdom of king Parikshit.

“Like light the ripe barley runs over beyond
the mouth (of the vessels). The people thrive
merrily in the kingdom of king Parikshit.”
(Bloomfield, Atharvaveda, pp. 197-198).

A son of his was Janamejaya, whose horse
sacrifice is celebrated in the Satapatha Brah-
mana (XIII. 5. 4.) and Aitareya Brahmana (VIII.
21), and whose brothers Ugrasena, Bhimasena
and Srutasena by the same sacrifice purified
themselves of the sin of Brahmin killing. The
capital of Janamejaya was Asandivanta. This
Parikshit — Janamejaya must not be confused
with the descendants of the Pandavas. It
seems that the main Kuru line fell into distress
after Janamejaya and remained in darkness for
several generations until a descendant of his,
the famous Pratipa, revived the power and
greatness of the family (Mhb. V. 148.5053).
Hence in most places in the Puranas the names
of the kings between Janamejaya and Pratipa
are omitted from the genealogies. From Pratipa
to the Pandavas the history of the Kurus is
ttnchequered.

Closely allied to the Kurus were the
Panchalas, a composite tribe as the name shows.
_ „ . , According to the Satapatha Brah-

Knrn» Pangnala^ « , ^ ^ .

mana the older name for the
Panchalas was Krivi, and according to the

112

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

Mahabharata the Srinjayas were connected with
the royal family of North Panchala. We may,
therefore, believe that the Krivis and Srinjayas
of the early Vedic period and three other tribes,
who cannot be clearly traced, together formed
the later Panchala people. The Kuru-Panchalas
are described in the Brahmanas as the models
of good form, their kings as the greatest sacrifi-
cers, and their priestly class the most learned
in the knowledge of the Vedas. “Speech
sounds higher here among the Kuru-Panchalas.”
The later Samhitas and the Brahmanas seem ■
mostly to have taken definite form in the land
of the Kuru-Panchalas. In the Rajsuya cere-
mony as described in the Yajurveda the king
is presented to the people as that of the Kurus
or Panchalas or Kuru-Panchalas. Of the
Panchala kings we bear of Kraivya, Sona
Satrasaha, Durmukha, a great conqueror, and
Pravahana Jaivali, a philosopher king of the
Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads.

The Matsyas seem to have occupied an
important position, though within a limited space,
during the Brahmana period. One of
their kings, Dbvasan Dvaitavana per-
formed a horse sacrifice where there is the lake
Dvaitavana (S.P.Br.XIII. 5.4.9). The well-known
sage, Gargya Balaki lived for sometime among
them (Kaus. Br. IV. i). Their activities, how-
ever, remained confined to alliances and rivalries

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

113

with the neighbouring powers like the Kuru-
Panchalas, the Surasenas and the Chedis, and did
not operate on the wider stage of Aryavarta,
unlike those of the Kurus, Kosalas, Yadus and
others. In the Mahabharata war the Matsyas
were one of the secondary powers who led their
hosts to the assistance of the more important
combatants.

To the east of the Kuru-Panchala land lay

the realms of Kosala and Videha. A family of

ir . ir. • . princes bearing the name of
Kosala- Videlia. t, , , . , , ,

Ikshaku is known from the Rigveda

(X.60.4), and it is likely that the ruling dynasty

of Kosala may have been descended from this

family. “In the Panchavimsa Brahmana mention

is made of Tryaruna Aikshaka who is identical

with the Tryaruna Traivrishna of the Brihaddeva-

ta and with Tryaruna Trasadasyu in the Rigveda.

The connection of Trasadasyu with the Ikshakus

is confirmed by the fact that Purukutsa was an

Aikshaka, according to Satapatha Brahmana.

Thus the Ikshaku line was originally a line of the

Puru kings.” (Vedic Index). Epic and Pauranic

traditions describe the royal dynasty of Videha as

a branch of the Ikshaku dynasty of Kosala, Nimi

the founder of the former being a son of Ikshaku.

The tradition, as recorded in the Satapatha

Brahmana, about the founding of the kingdom

of Videha by Videgha Mathava accompanied by

his priest Gotama Rabugana, appears to be more

IS

1 14 THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

reliable, though the existence of a king by name
Nimi may be assumed from the occurrence of
the name Nami Sapya the Videhan in the Vedic
Texts. Probably Nimi was the founder not of
the kingdom but of the greatness of the king-
dom. Even without accepting the Pauranic
traditions we may find evidences in the Brah-
manas to show that the Kosalas and the Videhas
were allied tribes and that there was some
rivalry existing between the Kosala-Videhas and
the Kuru-Panchalas. Sometimes Kosala and
Videha were- united under one rule, as under
Para Atnara Hairanyanabha (S.P.Br.XIII. 544 )*
It is said that the sage Jala Jatukamya was
the priest of the Kosalas, Videhas and Kasis at
one time (Sankhayana Srauta Sutra XVI. 29.5),
which indicates at least a temporary league.
Brahminism was not as strong in Kosala as
in the Kuni-Panchala land, as is revealed in the
verdict given by the people in favour of their
king against his priest (Jaiminiya Brahmana
III. 94-95)- It appears from all these that
the Aryan tribes who occupied Oudh and
North Behar might or might not be a branch
of the Kuru-Panchalas, but it is certain that
politically and to some extent culturally there
was some difference and rivalry between the
eastern group of Kosala, Videha and Kasi,
and the western group of Kuru-Pancbala,
Matqra, Surasena, etc.

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

115

Some uncertainty exists with regard to the
Kasis. Pauranic tradition traces the descent
of the Kasi dynasty from the Paurava
king Nahusha, grandson of Pururavas,
and thereby connects the Kasis with the
Kuru-Panchalas. But whatever might have
been their origin, we find in the Brahmanas
and the Upanishads that the Kasis were more
allied to the Kosala-Videhas and were often
fighting against the Kura-Panchalas. Dhrita-
rastra Vaichitravirya, king of Kasi, was
defeated by the Kuru king Satariika Satrajita
with the result that the Kasis down to the
time of the Satapatha Brahmana ceased to
keep up the sacrificial fire (S. P. Br. XIII.

5.4.19)-

That there is some consistency in the Pauranic
traditions can not be denied when we learn
from them that not only the Kasis
Mai^dha. Aryan colonists of Magadha,

at least the royal family, belonged to the Kuru-
Panchala tribes. It is said that the first
conquest was made by Amurtarayas, a younger
son of Kusa, king of Kanyakubja or Kanouj, and
descended from Pururavas. Afterwards Vasu, a
descendant of king Kuru, conquered the country
and gave it to his eldest son, Brihadratha,
the founder of the famous Barhadratha dynasty.

In the Puranas tribal names are often

116

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

inserted in the genealogies under the disguise
of eponymous ancestors, and we
believe in the relationship
of such and such tribes when
their eponymous ancestors are descended from
a common father. Thus Puru, Anu, Druhyu,

Yadu, Turvasha are the eponymous ancestors
of the five allied tribes of the Rigveda. There
is nothing in the Rigveda to indicate any
blood relation between these tribes. Of these
the Anu and Druhyu, the Yadu and Turvasha
are sometimes mentioned as pairs, indicating
closer relations between the two. But for
the time being these five tribes were in con-
federacy against the powerful Bharatas.

Probably this fact accounts for the statement j

in the Puranas that the five eponymous heroes

were brothers, being the sons of the mythical

king Yajati. Yajati, it is said, divided his

kingdom among his five sons, Puru receiving

the middle region, Anu north, Druhyu west, i

Yadu south-west, and Turvasha south-east.

The Pauranic location of the tribes, if we put
the Purus on the Saraswati, accords well ,

with what we know from the Rigveda. I

Of these five tribes the Purus, as we have
seen, united with the Bharatas and other tribes i

and became the founders of the ‘

famous Kuru-Panchala tribes. It is
also likely that the ruling families of Kosala,

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

H7

Kasi and Magadha belonged to this stock. The
Anus were divided into two branches, Usinara
and Titikshu. The Usinaras in course of time
were subdivided into Usinara proper, Yaudheya,
Madraka, Kekaya,* Sauvira, etc., the tribes
whom we find in occupation of the Punjab and
Sind in more recent times. From Tituksbu
descended after several generations the famous
king Bali, who divided his territories among
his five sons, Anga, Vanga, Kalinga,
Pundra and Suhma. Thus the Puranas under
the disguise of fables, mythical kings and
eponymous ancestors seek to connect the tribes
of the Punjab and the Aryan colonists of the
eastern countries, Anga ( E. Behar), Vanga
(E. Bengal ), Pundra ( N. Bengal), Suhma ( W.
Bengal), Kalinga (Orissa), all belonging to the
Anu stock of the Rigveda. This tradition
accords very well with the findings of Grierson
as to the near relations of the dialects of the
Punjab and the eastern provinces as distin-
guished from those of the Midland.

In the Rigveda we find the Druhyus living to

From the Ramayana (II. 68. 19-22 ; VII. 113-114)
we learn that the Kekaya country lay between the Beas
and the Gandhara country. Asvapati, a king of Kekaya
in the Upanishad period, is a famous person, who taught
a number of well-known Brahmin scholars the principles of
the knowledge of Brahma (Chhandogya Upanishad V. ii,
4 et seq).

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

n8

the west of the Anus, i.e. in the Indus region.

The Puranas make Gandhara, an
eponymous king, a descendant of
Druhyu, showing that the Druhyus inhabited
the Gandhara land. Unlike the other tribes
the Druhyus did not seek to expand towards
the interior of India. Their way towards the
east and south-east was barred by the Anus.
Hence they sent their overflowings to the coun-
tries to the west and north-west, a fact recorded
in the Puranas which tell us that the hundred
sons of Pracheta, a later descendant of Druhyu
and Gandhara, established themselves as kings
in the Mlechchha countries to the north.

The Turvashas lived, according to Pauranic
tradition, to the south-east of the Purus. In
the Brahmana period they have
practically disappeared from his-
tory, The Satapatha Brahmana (XIII. 5. 4. 16)
suggests that they formed one of the elements
of the composite Panchala tribe. The Puranas
declare that the Turvashas were merged into the
Purus as their last king Marutta adopted the Puru
king Dushyanta as his successor. Anyway, the
Turvashas were absorbed by the Kuru-Panchalas.

Unlike their old allies, the Turvashas, the
Yadus displayed a remarkable power of growth
and expansion, and became in
the Epic age no mean rivals
of the Kurus and the Ikshakus. Out of the

Torraslias.

Yadns,

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

119

confused accounts, different versions, wrong
arrangements and omissions of the diflFerent
Puranas one fact stands clear, viz., that the
Yadus in course of time branched oflF into the
Yadavas, Satvatas, Haihayas, Kukuras, Bhojas,
Andhakas, Chedis, Vrishnis and other smaller
clans. For the history of the Yadus we
have to depend entirely on the Puranas as
the names of Yadu kings except the Bhojas
are almost unknown to the Samhitas and the
Brahmanas. Of the important Yadu kingdoms
may be mentioned the Haihaya kingdom of
Mahismati or Malwa, Kukura kingdom of
Surasena or Muttra,* Vrishni kingdom of
Dwaraka in Kathiwar, Bhoja kingdom of Martti-
kavata in Rajputana, Yadava kingdom of
Vidarbha or Berar (otherwise known as the
Bhoja kingdom, the name Bhoja being often
applied to the Yadus in general), Chedi
kingdom to the south of the Jumna (till its
conquest by Vasu Chaidya the Paurava). From
Kautilya’s Arthasastra we know that the
Bhojas at one time ruled in the Dandaka or
Maharasta country, probably supplanting a
small Ikshaku colony there, the remembrance
of which gave origin to the eponymous king

♦ The country obtained its name from Surasena, son of
Satrugna, who had conquered it from the Yadara king Lavana
of Madhu’s family. The Yadavas seem to‘ have regained it
after Surasena’s death. Mathura is a corruption of Madhupura.

120

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

Danda, a son of Ikshaku. In short, we see that
the Yadus prevailed over practically the whole
land from the Gulf of Cambay and the Godavery
to the Jumna.

The Haihayas were the Mahrattas of the
Epics during the Treta age. It seems that at first
the Pauravas attained supremacy in the
Middle Country and that that period
of their greatness is associated in the
Puranas with such mythical kings as Pururavas,
Ayu, Nahusha and Yajati. After the death of
Yajati the Paurava kingdom was broken up
into small principalities, and the kingdom of
Oudh rose to supremacy under its kings,
Yuvanasva and his son Mandhatri. Under
Mandhatri and his sons, one of whom was
Muchukunda, the Ikshakus conquered the
country as far as the Punjab on one side
and the Nerbudda on the other. The
Haihayas, who were settled in Malwa, and
who were pressed under the heels of the
Ikshakus, soon rose against them, and taking
advantage of the weakness of Muchukunda’s
successors, not only cleared their country of
the enemies but, like the Mahrattas under Baji
Rao, boldly appeared in the Gangetic regions,
and fell upon the small kingdom of Kasi. They
ravaged and conquered it and made it their base
for raiding Northern India. The greatest king
of the Haihaya dynasty was Arjuna, son of

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

12!

Kritavirya, who is known as a Samrat and a
Chakravartin, He defeated and took prisoner a
Havana* or a Dravidian king, who had come
northward on conquest. He, like Balaji Rao,
extended his conquests from the Nerbudda
to the Himalayas overruning the kingdom of
Oudh. In his pride of power he began to oppress
the Brahmin family of Bhargava who dwelt in
the lower region of the Nerbudda. The Bhar-
gavas fled to the Gangetic Doab, and with a
view to avenge themselves on the Haihayas
entered into matrimonial alliances with the royal
families of Kanouj and Oudh. Arjuna raided
Jamadagni Bhargava’s hermitage, and in the
melee which took place both of them were
killed. Jamadagni’ s son, the terrible Parasu-
rama, swore vengeance and with the assistance
of the princes of Oudh and Kanouj, both of
whom were suffering from the raids of the
Haihayas, defeated and killed many of the
enemies. The Haihaya power, like that of the
Mahrattas after the third battle of Panipat,
received a set-back, but was not crushed. The
central power was destroyed, and on its ruins
rose five powers in five different centres —
Vitihotra, Saryata, Bhoja, Avanti, Tundikera, all
of whom were collectively known as Talajanghas

* RaVana is probably not a personal name but a Bans'
kritized form of the Tamil word iremn or iraivan, ‘God, king,
sovereign, lord.’ (Pai^iter, Aoc.lnd.His. Tiad.pb 342 ).
i6

122

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

from the name of the grandson of Arjuna.
This confederacy of Haihaya powers gradually
recovered from the great blow inflicted by
Parasurama and again began their raids into
Northern India. The kingdom of Kanouj fell,
and Bahu, king of Oudh, was compelled to
leave his capital and take shelter in the hermi-
tage of Aurva Bhargava, where he died. The
Haihayas then attacked the eastern kingdoms
of Vaisali and Videha. But Vaisali was for-
tunate enough to have three generations of very
able princes at the time, Karandhama, Aviksit
and Marutta, who successfully repulsed the
Haihaya attacks. The Kasi kings, too, who had
been carrying on a long struggle from the
eastern portion of their territory, attained some
success, and Pratardana and his son Vatsa even
annexed the district of Kausambi, which was
thence named the Vatsa country.

Meanwhile Sagara, son of Bahu, had
reached manhood and made careful prepara-
tions to fight the Haihayas. He
defeated them, regained the throne
of Oudh, and soon established
his supremacy in Northern India. He then
invaded the territories of the Haihayas and
crushed their power so effectively that we
do not hear of them till long afterwards. He
advanced as far as Vidarbha, whose king had
to buy peace by giving his daughter in marriage

LATER TRIBES ANfD KINGDOMS

123

with him. After Sagara^s death Oudh failed
to maintain her suzerainty over the vast empire
built up by him, and though from time to time
kings like Dilipa, Raghu, Aja, Dasaratha went
out on conquering expeditions and achieved some
successes, yet on the whole the Oudh kings
confined themselves to their own territories.
The Yadavas of Vidarbha availing themselves
of the friendship of Oudh gradually extended
their power over a part of the Haihaya country
and over the Chedi country. Meanwhile the
Paurava realm, which had been overthrown in
Mandhatri’s time,"^ regained its independence
and the land from the Saraswati to the Ganges
came under the rule of Paurava princes from
different centres, one of which was Hastinapur.
The Yadavas stepped into the place of the
Haihayas and established several kingdoms
in the land from the Jumna to the Gulf of
Cambay, the more important of which were
Surasena and Dwaraka.

* We find in the Rarnayana (1.13.21-28) that Vasi^ha
advised Dasaratha, king of Ajodhya, to invite the kings of
Mithila, Kasi, Kekaya, Anga, Magadha, Sindhu, Sauvira,
Suras tra etc., but did not mention any king of the Middle
Country. This passage is cited by some scholars to prove
that there was cultural difference between the kingdoms of
the Outer Band and those of the Middle Country. But
it need not be interpreted in that way, and the meaning
becomes clear if we remember that the Kuru-Panchaia
land was directly subject to the king of Oudh.

124

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

After the death of Rama, the hero of the
Ramayana, the power of Oudh began to
decline and the centre of political
K^-Panda^ activity shifted to the Kuru-
apara e. country. The Kurus

and the Pandavas were certainly the most
powerful princes of their time and their
domestic quarrels brought the whole of India
from one extremity to the other into the
vortex of blood in the Kurukshetra war.
Almost all the ruling families suffered so much
that for a long time after there was a spirit
of stupor in the country and the wars and
rivalries of the succeeding generations bespeak
only pettiness and weakness of the contending
parties. Kshatriya India could never recover
< from the awful carnage of the Kurukshetra war.
During the following age, though the
Ikshaku and Kuru lines of kings continued to
Knms — rule in their respective realms,

Kali Age. the kingdom of the future was
Magadha, the Prussia of Aryavarta, and detailed
dynastic tables are given in the Puranas of
these three kingdoms only, the other kingdoms
being incidentally mentioned. Shortly after
the Kurukshetra war it seems that a non-
Aryan tribe, the Nagas, established themselves
at Takshasila or Taxila and attacked the
grandson of the Pandavas, Parikshit II, who was
killed. His son Janamejaya III was a vigorous

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS

125

ruler, who defeated the Nagas but failed to
annihilate their power. In the reign of Nichak-
shus, the fourth in descent from Janamejaya,
Hastinapur (in the Meerut District), the Kuru
capital, was destroyed by an inundation of the
Ganges. This, together with the pressure of
the barbarians from the north-west, compelled
the Kurus to transfer their headquarters to
Kausambi (near Allahabad). One of the latest
kings was Udayana the Vatsaraj, who was a
contemporary of Gautama Buddha. He is
a favourite hero of later romance writers.
His descent from the Bharata family is attested
to by Bhasa in the Svapnavasavadatta. He
was the son-in-law and also a rival of Pradyota,
king of Avanti. He was at first unfriendly
to the Buddhist preachers, one of whom he
tortured in a fit of drunken jealousy by having
a sack of brown ants tied to his body. But
afterwards he repented and professed himself
a disciple of the tortured monk. The dynasty
came to an end with Kshemaka, the fourth
in descent from Udayana. Kautilya writes
in the 4th century B. C. that the Kurus
were governed by a republican constitution.
The existence of the Kurus can be traced as
late as the time of king Dharmapala of Bengal
(800 A. D.), who installed Chakrayudha on the
throne of Kanouj in consultation with the
Kurus among others.

126

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

About the time of Gautama Buddha’s birth the
most prominent of the kingdoms of Western India
was Avanti, the Vrishni kingdom of Dwaraka
having been ruined by fratricidal
strifes after the Kurukshetra war.
The Vrishnis, however, reappear in history as
one of the powers which arise on the ruins of
the Maurya empire in the second century B. C.,
and continue their fitful existence till at least
the time of Bana (7th century A. D.), who
mentions them in his Harshacharita. The
smaller branches of Surasena and Asmaka were
in dependent alliance with the Pradyota kings
of Avanti. Pradyota, whose father Punika
seems to be a usurper, was the most powerful
prince of his time. He pressed hard Udayana
the Vatsa king and threatened Ajatasatru, the
powerful king of Magadha, who is said to have
fortified his capital shortly after the death of
Buddha in anticipation of an attack by the
Avanti king.

The most notable figure of the age which
followed the decline' of the Kuru kingdom was
Janaka, the famous king of Videha.
There were so many Janakas in
the dynasty of Videha that the
family was called Janaka vamsa (Vayu Pur. 89,
23). But the most celebrated of them was the
one who is mentioned in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad as the patron of Uddalaka Aruni

LATER TRIBES AND KINGDOMS 127

and Yajnavalkya. The memories of the great-
ness of the Kurus were still fresh in men’s
minds, and their fate was discussed as a subject
of controversy in the court of Mithila, the capital
of Videha, A rival of Yajnavalkya asks the
question, “whither have the Parikshitas gone ?”
to which the latter quickly replies, “Thither
where all Aswamedha-sacrificers go” (Bt. Up,
III). Janaka is called a “Samrat” or one
greater than a king, and in Asvalayana Srauta
Sutra (X. 3. 14) is mentioned as a great sacri-
ficer. His court was thronged with learned
Brahmins from the western countries (i. e. the
Middle Country)^ whose discussions materially
contributed to the gtowth of the Upanishad
philosophy. “The king of the east, who has a
leaning to the culture of the west, collects the
celebrities of the west at his court much as the
intellects of Athens gathered at the court of
Macedonian princes.” (Oldenberg, Buddha, p.
398). Both according to Kautilya’s Arthasastra
and Nimi Jataka, the last king of Videha was
Kalara or Karala Janaka who brought destruc-
tion on himself and his family by making a las-
civious attempt on a Brahmin maiden.” By
the time of Gautama Buddha (600 B, C.) the
Videhas had become a member of the well-
known Vajjian confederacy of republican states
of North Behar, of which the Lichchhavis of
Vaisali were the head.

128 THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

The small kingdom of Kasi continued its
^istence for several centuries after the Maha-
bharata war, often under the sway
Kasi-Kosala. Kuru king of Kausambi.

But it seems to have asserted its independence
and for a time played a prominent part on the
stage of Northern India. Under its most
famous king Brahmadatta it carried on success-
ful wars against the then most powerful state
of Kosala, which was compelled to acknowledge
his suzerainty. For four generations the two
kingdoms fought with varying results, but
eventually the greater resources of Kosala
wore out the power of Kasi, which was com-
pletely subjugated by Kamsa, king of Kosala.
With the decline of Vatsa and the conquest of
Kasi, Kosala became the dominant power in
Northern India, which position it retained till
the time of Prasenajit, a contemporary of Gau-
tama Buddha. The Sakyas, the people of Gau-
tama Buddha, as well as other republican tribes
of the Nepal regions, were vassals of the Kosala
king. Shortly after the death of Prasenajit
Kosala was conquered by Ajatasatru, king of
Magadha. By the time of the Nandas (400 B.C.)
the Kurus, the Ikshakus, the Avantis, the
Vajjis, the Kasis, all had been swallowed up by
the Magadhan empire.

APPENDIX I

Orthodox Indian Pundits relying on the authority of Pauranic
traditions maintain that the Vedic Aryans had ever been living in
India, which is the centre of the earth, that the other civili-
zations of the world are only offshoots of the Indian civilization,
and that the age of the Vedas must be counted by millions of
years ( Durgadas Lahiri, Prithivir Itihasha I ). All the arguments
and theories of European scholars have not been able to
undermine their beliefs, and, though unable to produce counter-
arguments of a rational character, they have remained ensconced
in the scepticism born of ignorance and false pride. When, however,
Dr. Abinas Chandra Das in his Rigvedic India entered the
lists to fight the European scholars with modern weapons instead
of simply citing the authority of the Sastras, there rose at once
a chorus of joy from the orthodox and he was acclaimed as the
champion of their cause. Because of his advocacy of the old
beliefs of the Pundits and his arguments to demolish the modern
theories regarding the origin of the Aryan folk, their primitive
home, and the date of the Rigveda, his book has caught popular
fancy and hardened the prejudices of the Pundits. For the
benefit of ordinary Indian readers I shall discuss at length hi^
theories and the data on which those theories are based, and
thereby indirectly deal with the orthodox school df which he is

s

regarded as the mouth-piece.

The principal ai^ument of Dr. Das is that there are references
in the Rigveda to four seas, as in IX.33.6, and to seismic distur-
bances of great intensity, as in Il.ra.a, which prove that those
i7

130

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

hymns were composed at a time when the Punjab was surrounded
by seas almost on all sides, in Central Asia, Sind, Rajputana,
and the Gangetic valley, and when the earth was still passing
through the Tertiary era ll is assumed that the Punjab had
become long habitable when the Gangetic valley was still a sea.
Now geologists assume the existence of two seas side by side,
the Gangetic trough and the Indus trough, which were gradually
filled up by alluvium brought by the Ganges and the Indus
respectively. As the alluvial deposit in the Punjab generally
is of smaller thickness than in the Gangetic valley, it is suggested
that the former was older than the latter. Bui it is also found
that some parts of the Indus trough, as at Ludhiana, have *‘a
depth which is comparable with, and possibly quite as great as,
that of the much broader trough in the Gangetic region^' In
other words, when the Gangetic region was a sea, the eastern
Punjab too was a sea, and the Vedic Saptasindhava (land of
the seven rivers) was a misnomer. Secondly, it has not been
calculated as to how much older even the western Punjab land
was than the Gangetic region, whether the difference in age
between the two lands was sufficient for the purpose of the
birth of lower mammalia and then of man (it is assumed by Dr.
Das that the Aryan was autochthonous in the Punjab), and of
the gradual evolution of man from bis primitive condition unaided
by any external influences to the civilized state of the Vedic age,
i.e. whether the Punjab land was older than the Gangetic region
by hundreds of thousands of years. Thirdly, we know that
the Gangetic ;sea had become land in Miocene times (Ency.
Brit, XII. p. 736). So according to Dr. Das’s hypothesis, the
Vedic hymns referring to the four seas and the eastern and

APPENDIX

131

western seas must have been composed at least in Miocene
times, if not in Oligocene and Eocene, or at least two million
years ago. Now it is a matter of dispute among geologists and
anthropologists as to whether man lived in Miocene times (Keith,
The Antiquity of Man). Even if we admit that man existed
in Miocene times, it was not man as we understand him to be,
but man in the embryonic stage, nearer to the ape than to
modern man, as is proved by the human bones so far discovered
of the pliocene and even early pleistocene periods. Even
Professor Rutot, the great champion of the theory of extreme
antiquity of man, has to assume that “Man was in a state of
stagnation throughout the ages which witnessed the rise and fall
of whole genera of other mammals.” Under these circumstances
Dr. Das would have us believe that in the Punjab the Vedic
Aryans had passed through the palaeolithic and neolithic stages,
and were in the Iron age with a highly developed civilization
even in the Miocene period. Again, we are asked to believe
that the Vedic Aryans were an iron-using people in the Punjab
hundreds of thousands of years ago, and though it is admitted
that they had trad^ relations with other peoples neat and far,
the use of iron remained confined to them and did not spread
anywhere beyond their land till only about 2000 B. C. in Chma
and about 1500 B. C. in Western Asia and Eg}’pt, though the
Babylonians and the Egyptians had already far advanced in
civilization, and their ruling classes, if we agree with Dr. Das,
had been colonists from India.

Dr. Das agrees with Tilak that some of the hymns were
composed about 4500 B.C. (p 4^)» states that the early hymns
were composed in Miocene times. In other words, the Rigvedic

132

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

age covered about 2 million years. It is of course admitted
that the hymns were not composed at the same time, and
that the composition and collection must have taken rather a
long time. Now how to measure that length of time ? Competent
scholars have come to the conclusion that the Rigvedic age
lasted for about 500 years. What is in hymns like Rig VII. 95. 2
and X, 136. 5 which demonstrates their extreme antiquity ?
Are the thoughts very different, are the gods and goddesses
different, is the mode of prayer different from those of the so-
called later hymns like those composed in 4500 B.C. ? Again,
comparatively old as the hymns of the Rigveda may be, even
the earliest hymns represent thoughts, manners and customs,
which are not so different from those of the Brahmanic or
Epic period that we can separate them from the later
literatures even by thousands, not to say of hundreds of
thousands of years. Further, whatever changes might take place
in the language during the whole Rigvedic period, there are
no fundamental differences observed between the languages of any
two hymns and the whole literature inspite of stages of development
constitutes one type. Now this type is not so different from the
old Persian of the 6th or 7th century B.C. and from the classical
Sanskrit literature of the 4th century B.C. that we can believe,
whatever allowances might be made for stagnation of language, that
the Rigvedic literature was distant from these literatures by even
three thousand years. So from the linguistic and sociological
points of view the theory of Dr. Das seems absurd (Winternitz)*

In order to prove his theory Dr. Das has had recourse to all
sorts of ingenious explanations about Dasas, Rakshas, Panis,
and the origins of western nations. One of the arguments urged

APPENDIX

133

against the Indian origin of the Aryan race is that in the Rigreda
we find a struggle going on between the Aryans and the Dasyus who
had strong cultural and physical differences, and that it is improbable
that two such distinct types of men had been living and developing
in the same land without intermingling. To this it is replied
by Dr. Das that the Dasyus and the Rakshas were not non-
Aryans, but “either Aryan nomads in a savage condition, or
Aryan dissenters from the orthodox Vedic faith.” The black skin
is explained away as being used in a spiritual sense, noselessness
or ill-formed nose as indicative of imperfect speech, and so forth.
Now he admits that the Dasas and Rakshas had different gods,
different religious rites, different dialects, and different ways of
living from those of the Vedic hymn-makers, and seeks to explain
these radical differences by assuming that while one section of the
Aryan race had been highly civilized another section remained
still in a savage, nomadic state. We can realise the weight or
otherwise of this assumption if we recollect that the Vedic
Aryans had already reached a high level of civilization in Miocene
times, and for hundreds of thousands of years had been fight-
ing with their nomadic brethren without in any way improving
them, and that in a limited area like that of the Punjab. These
savage nomads then, it is said, were expelled from the country
and mingling with the Turanians in Central Asia went to settle
in Europe. As the Aryan-speaking Europeans are known to
have been not iron-using when they went to settle there, and
as the absence of any common root for the word “sea” in their
languages proves that their forefathers had no knowledge of sea,
it is assumed by Dr. Das that the nomadic Aryans in the Punjab
born of the same stock as the Vedic Aryans and in close contact

134

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

with them for hundreds of thousands of years were still ignorant
of the use of metals, and, nomadic as they were, were ignorant
of the existence of seas which, it is stated, surrounded the
country on four sides. The assumptions and inferences are a
little too bold to be accepted. To explain away the Iranian
tradition of their origin in Airyana Vaejo Dr. Das assumes that
as the Iranians had quarrelled with the Indians they were reluctant
to point to Saptasindhu as their original home. But one would
Jjave been convinced if the name of Saptasindhu had been altoge-
ther omitted from the list of countries created by Ahura Mazda.
But the name stands there, and also the description as to how
the climate of the place, which had been at first good, was
changed.

Dr. Das holds that the Deccan peninsula had been inhabited
by the Dravidians from time immemorial, but that there being no
land connection between the Punjab and the southern continent,
they did not come into contact with the Aryans. But those autho-
rities which he has quoted to prove the existence of the Gangetic
trough state that even when the Indus trough had not been filled
there was a tongue of solid land separating the two seas. Certainly
this narrow strip of land had considerably widened, if we look to
the depth of alluvial deposit on and near the Delhi Ridge, when
the Punjab became terra firma. How can he then assume the
existence of a sea entirely cutting off the Vindhya regions from
the Punjab ?

Now let us examine the data which have led Dr. Das to these
astounding conclusions. The first is that* in Rig VII, 95.2 the
Saraswati is said to flow from the mountains into the sea. To
explain this one need not go back to the time when Rajputana

APPENDIX

135

i

was a sea. It might imply either that the Saraswati met the Indus
and the united waters flowed into the sea or that the Saraswati
was an independent river flowing into the Arabian Sea. Even as
late as the time of Alexander a large part of Lower Sind was still
under water and the Indus delta was considerably higher up than
the present position. So it is not difficult to imagine that in Rig-
Vedic times the Indus delta was still higher up and the Saraswati
was an independent river. In fact, the old bed of the Saraswati-
Sutlej (Hakra) can even now be seen for a considerable length
through the Bhawalpur state, which does not prove that “th#
disappearance of the Saraswati was synchronous with that of the
Rajputana sea.’’

Dr, Das lays considerable stress upon the reference to four
seas, as in Rig IX. 33.6. That the four seas are more imaginary
than real is apparent from the fact that unlike the rivers and the
mountains the seas have got no names of their cwn in the Rigveda,

I agree with Dr. Das in holding that the Aryans while in the
Punjab were acquainted with the Arabian Sea. For one sailing
upon the vast expanse of the sea it is not unnatural to think it
limitless and surrounding the land on all the four sides. What-
ever might have bee^ the cause, the Indians of the Epic period
regarded the world as consisting of seven islands and seven con-
centric rings of seas. ■ Can any one at the present time try to locate
the seven seas surrounding the seven islands relying upon the old
tradition ? The Rigvedic mention of the four seas only shows the
origin of the later and more developed Pauranic tradition. The
sight of sunrise and sunset from on board a ship by the hymn-
makers, associated with the conception of four seas surrounding the
land, can well account for the description oi the sun dwelling in *

THE ARYANiSATtOi^ OF INDIA

the eastern and western seas, as in Rig X, 136.5. Moreover,
there is ample justification for modern scholars saying that the
TOrd^Samudra (sea) in the Rigveda was often figuratively used to
mean the vast, limitless expanse of the sky, and that the reference
to eastern and western seas in connection with the rising
and setting of the sun was used to mean nothing but eastern
and western sky.

“Another evidence of the antiquity of the Rigveda and the
Aryans of Sapta-Sindhu,*' says Dr. Das, “is the reference in some
of the hymns to extensive seismic disturbances, causing upheavals
and depressions of land and frequent earthquakes of great inten-
sity,” As for instance, in Rig II. 17.5, “By his strength he
(Indra) fixed the wandering mountains ; he ordained the down-
A ward course of the water.” Evidently, as Dr. Das himself admits,
the wandering mountains here means clouds which were at first

£

made motionless and then made to pour down waters. In Rig II.
12.2, “He who fixed firm the earth that staggered ; who made the
moving mountains rest; who spread the spacious firmament; who
consolidated the heaven; he, men, is Indra.” Dr. Das forgets
that tl^ meanings of many words changed from the Vedic to
the classical literature. He makes a muddle by translating
prakupitan parvatan as angry mountains, thereby thinking it
as referring to volcanic eruptions. If he had cared to consult
Sayana and other commentators he would have found that pra-
kupitan means here not angry but moving from the original mean-
ing of the root kup^ to move. The allusion is as follows (cf. Maitr*
Sam. i.io.rj) — “The mountains are the eldest children of Proja-
patL They had wings. They flew about and descended whenever
they liked. The earth thus tottered. Indra cut ofl* their wings,

APPENDIX

137

and made fast the earth by means of them.” Thus by ^ stretch
of imagination can any of the passages quoted be made to, refer to
any “extensive seismic disturbances,” characteristic of the T^tia^
era.

The fourth evidence, according to Dr. Das, is that as Indra was
one of the oldest gods of the Aryans, and as the great exploits of
Indra are said to have taken place on the banks of the Saraswati, ^
that place must have been the primitive home of the Aryans. The
same argument with respect to the old god Zeus and his residence

%

on the Olympus would Ipad one to the conclusion that the Hel-
lenes were autochthonous in Greece. Besides, Indra is certainly
not one of the oldest gods of the Aryans as he can not be traced
beyond the Indo-Iranian period.

The fifth evidence is “that the total absence of the mention pf^ , ^

the Deluge in the Rigveda proves the period of the composition of

*

the hymns to be anterior to that event”, and the Deluge is said to be
nothing but the raising of the Rajputana sea-bed by volcanic action
and consequent flooding of the Punjab. Dr. Das himself admits the
weakness of argumentum ex silentio. He says that the Atharva-
veda “is admittedly a later work than the Rigveda,” and al^ agrees
with Tilak that some of the Rig hymns were composed about
4500 B. C. So it follows from his own argument that the
Deluge or the upheaval of the Rajputana sea-bed, which is not
mentioned in the Rigveda but is in the Atharvaveda, must have
taken place sometime after 4500 B. C. Will geologists agree ?
Cannot a better explanation be found for the absence of
reference to the l^eluge in the Rigveda ? The story of the
Deluge was probably borrowed from the Dravidians, and hence

its absence in the Rigveda (See ante pp. 8o*8i).

18

138

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

The capious rainfall in the Punjab, which, as Dr. Das says,
is alluded to in the Rigveda, was, according to him, an evidence
of a very ancient date of the Rigveda, when there were seas on
all sides of the Punjab. But it is not necessary to go back to
prehistoric times to explain more abundant rainfall in the Punjab.
When Alexander came, the Punjab as well as large parts of
Beluchistan and Eastern Persia had not become so dry and hot
(Vredenburg, Mem. Geo. Surv. Ind. XXXI. pt 2). There were
an equable climate and good forest growths sustained by copious
rainfall. Without difficulty Alexander succeeded in building up
a large navy out of the trees that grew on the banks of the
Hydaspes (Jhelum), a thing which is impossible at the present
time on account of the drier climate which prevails. Then and
also at the time of Arab invasions there was dense population in the
lower Punjab and Sind, which implies that the soil had not
become so desertlike as it is at the present day.

Lastly, one of the evidences of the Indian origin of the Aryans
is “that the Soma sacrifice was admittedly the oldest sacrifice
among the Aryans and the genuine Soma plant grew nowhere
else excepting the Himalaya and Saptasindhu.” First, the Soma
sacrifice was certainly not the oldest sacrifice among the Aryans,
as no such word or sacrifice can be traced in the European
languages and mythologies. It belonged to Indo-Iranian period,
but not to Indo-European, Secondly, it is not known that the
real plant did not grow anywhere else than the Himalayas and
Sapt^indhu. It is certain that the plant grew best in cold
r^ions like the Himalayas, and did not grow as well when the
Aryans attemped to grow it on the banks of the Indus and the
Saraswati. Hence a regular trade had to be carried on

Appendix

m

in Soma plant from the Himalayas, and curiously, the trade
was in the hands of the barbarians. In other words, instead
of proving the Punjab origin of the Aryans, the Soma references,
if they prove anything, only prove the contrary, as certainly
the custom of Soma sacrifice could not originate in a country
where the plant did not grow so well, and as the place where it
grew well was inhabited not by Aryans but by barbarians. Do they
not fit in more properly with the theory that the Aryans originally
lived in a cold country where Soma was an indigenous plant, and
that when they came to the Punjab they could grow only plants
of an inferior quality on the hotter Punjab soil, and had to depend
for good quality upon the Himalayan products, which were beyond
their reach, but w'hich were brought down to them by the
barbarous hillmen ?

APPENDIX II

Mr. F. E. Pargiter relying on Pauranic traditions has propounded
in his learned book Ancient Indian Historical Tradition three start-
ling theories which tend to upset all the theories and inferences
of the Vedic scholars, and which, if proved, would compel a
complete rewriting of the ancient Indian history. His first theory
is that the word Aila, the patronymic of Pururavas, is the same
as the word Arya or Aryan and that the history of the growth
of the Aila family is that of the expansion of the Indo-Aryan
race. Now the first thing which passes beyond our comprehension
is that while the Vedic rishis always distinguished themselves
as Aryas why Pururavas is called the Aila (Rig X. 95.18), and
not Arya. The word Aila is never used either in the Rigveda
or in later literature as denoting a race as the word Arya did.
A more reasonable explanation of the word can be obtained
from the story of the Deluge in the Satapatha Brahmana, where
Ila, from whom the Aila or Lunar family is derived, personifies,
as the name denotes, the sacrificial offering made by Manu.

Secondly, we cannot agree with his views that the Ailas or
Aryans entered India through the niid-Himalayan region and
at first established themselves in Pratisthana, near Allahabad,
from whence they gradually spread towards the north-west and
eventually to Persia and Mesopotamia. There cannot be any
question about the tribal immigration of the Aryans into India
which was powerful enough to influence not only the languages
of the country but also to a great extent the ethnical type* Now
$i 8 01 was if possible fot a i^umerous community to come to In<Sa

APPENDIX

141

by way of the niid-PIimalayas ? The ph>bioaI difhculties are
insuperable. Again, why should the Aryans, when they came,
choose to settle not in the upper Gangetic valley, but traversing
a long way and rounding a large part of the so-called non-Aryan
kingdom of Ajodhya or Oudli ultimately settled near Allahabad ?

Thirdly, it is inferred by ]sh\ Pargitcr that in the time of the
Rigveda the Aryans had already spread over the greater part of
Northern India. The chief ditficulty in accepting this is that
the geography of the Rigveda is confined only to the north-

western parts of India. Mr. Pargiter would .not accept any
argumentum ex silentio, and cites the instance of the banyan
tree which could rujt have been unknown to the Indo-Aryans

but which is not , irenlioned in the Rigveda. Though the tree
is not mentioned by name in the Rigveda, it 'appears to have
been known as its characteristics arc recognised. The sister
tree Asvattha occurs in llie Rigveda (Vedic Index). The analogy
would have been convincing if thrre had been any hymn in the

Rigveda addressed to the piincipal trees, and the banyan not

included in the IRt. But tliat ib not the case. While there are
especial nadi-stutis or hymns addressed to rivers, ii is significant
that the names of no river beyond the Ganges are mentioned.
Again, while very small rivers of the Punjab are repeatedly
mentioned the river Ganges, on which, according to Mr, Pargiter,
the Aryans were first settled, is directly mentioned only once.
The Rigveda, according to him, was composed long after the
Aryans had been settled in the Gangetic valley and even after
the king Bhagiratha with whom the name and sacredness of the
river , are associated in the Puranas. And yet the hymn-makers
would not pay due respect to ^ihe river, while river Indus,

142

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

which is said to be far away from the scene of Vedic life, is repeat-
edly addressed to with reverence. While even such a small river
as Suvastu or Swat or a remote district like Gandhara does not
escape notice, it is strange that such large rivers as Nerbudda
and Chambal, such a large mountain as the Vindhya, and the
homes of the famous Haihayas, who, it is said, had established
their greatness before the Rigvedic time, and who were related
to the Pauravas and connected with the hymn-making Bhargava
family, are not mentioned at all. The argumentum ex silentio
cannot be easily disposed of in this case.

One of the chief arguments of Mr. Pargiter against the theory
of the advance of the Indo-Aryans from the north-west is that **‘the
list of rivers in Rigveda X. 75 is in regular order from the east to
the north-west — not the order of entrance from the north-west, but
the reverse.^’ There is nothing strange in it if we remember that
most of the hymns were composed on the eastern side of the river
Saraswati, and that, therefore, the hymn-maker commences from
the easternmost limit and traverses towards the known north-west.

“Moreover,’’ says Mr. Pargiter, “these conclusions are entirely
supported by the evidence of language, as set out by Sir G.
Grierson.” How? Mr. Pargiter makes the Kuru-Panchalas or the
inhabitants of the Middle Country, the Yadus of Western India
and the Deccan, and the Anus of Bengal and the Punjab related
to one another, all being of the stock of Pururavas. In other
words, he goes entirely against the conclusions of Grierson about
the fundamental difference between the Midland Indo- Aryan lan-
guage occupying the Gangetic Doab and the band of Outer lan-
guages occupying Kashmir, the Punjab, Sind, the Maratha country,
Orissa, Behar, Bengal and Assam.

APPENDIX

143

Mr. Pargiter's second theory is that the Vedic hymns were
composed long after the Aryans had established themselves over
the greater part of India, and that Sudas of Rigvcdic fame was a
king of North Panchala, who lived posterior to most of the kings
of Pauranic fame, as Bharata Daushyanti, Harischandra^ Sagara,
Raghu, Dasaratha, Rama, Kartavirya Arjuna, Pratardana, etc.
Now, it has been shown in the previous paragraphs that the Vedic
hymns of which Sudas is a hero could not have been composed
when the Indo-Aryans had advanced beyond the Ganges and the
Vindhyas, and hence the Vedic Sudas could not have been post-
erior to kings like Sagara, Arjuna and Rama whose exploits are
mosdy associated in the Puranas with Oudh, Malwa and the
Deccan. Secondly, the Vedic Sudas is distinctly called the son of
Pijavana, while the father of the Pauranic Sudas is Chyavana-
Panchajana. Mr. Pargiter says, ‘Tanchajana appears to be a
mistake for the Vedic Pijavana.” How can we believe it to be a
mistake when we know that Pijavana as the father of the Vedic
Sudas ‘is known to Yaska, the Mahabharata, and even Manu.
Evidently, the Puranas speak of a different Sudas who is the son
of Chyavana. Thirdly, the names of about a score of tribes, both
important and unimportant, are mentioned in the Rigveda in con-
nection with Sudas as friends and foes, including the Tuiwashas
who, according to Mr. Pargiter, had long ceased to exist. Had
he been the same as the Pauranic Sudas, on no account could the
names of the Ikshakus, the Videhas, the Satvatas, the Bhojas, the
most important of the tribes of the time, fail to be prominently
mentioned. Of course the Yadus are mentioned, but the Pauranic
Yadas had been split up into so many branches and covered so
extensive an area from the Godavery to the Jumna that they could

144

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

not be the same as the Rigvedic Yadus, just as the word Teuton
is not used to-day to denote any political power, such as the
English, the Austrian, the Dane, each of which possesses a separate
entity of its own. From all these it is clear that the Pauranic
Sudas is a different person from the Vedic Sudas. Mr. Pargiter
himself warns us against hasty conclusions drawn from sameness
of name. “Sameness of name was well-known among kings and
princes, for it is expressly declared that there were a hundred
Prativindhyas, Nagas, Haihayas, Dhritarastras, Brahmadattas,
Paulas, Svetas, Kasis and Kusas, eighty Janamejayas, a thousand
Sasabindus and two hundred Bhismas and Bhimas ; also that there
were two Nalas, one king of Ajodhya and the other the hero of the
‘Story of Nala’. So there were two famous Arjunas, Kartavirya
and Pandava, and a third in Rigveda I. 222, 5. The genealogical
lists in chapter XII show that other names were not uncommon,
such as Divodasa, Srnjaya and Sahadeva; and the number
of duplicates is very large.” (Anc. Ind. Hist. Tr. p. 130).
Again, he points out that “there were thus two Purukutsas with
sons named Trasadasyu. Those of Ajodhya were well-known, as
even the Satapatha Brahmana shows. Those in the Rigveda were
apparently Puru kings and probably belonged to some minor dy-
nasty descended from Bhaiata.” So why should we be led to believe
in the identity of the Vedic and Pauranic Sudases simply because
both had as their ancestors, though not immediate, Vadhryasva
and Divodasa ? The names of Mudgala and Srinjaya occur in the
Rigveda, but there is nothing to prove that they were connected
by relationship with Sudas. So it is very difficult to prove the
identity of the two Sudases on these slender bases, especially when
there are very strong arguments to tlie contrary. It would be ar

APPENDIX

145

easier to hold that the Sudas dynasty of the Rigveda was remem-
bered in later times, and that some kings of the North Panchala
dynasty adopted the well-known names of the Vedic dynasty, and
that later writers sometimes attributed to the Panchala dynasty
some of the facts relating to the Vedic dynasty, as they did with
regard to Paijavana Saudasa and Kalmasapada Saudasa (Ibid, p.
209).

Similarly, there is no harm in believing that kings Uke
Pururavas, Bharata, Nahusha, Mandhatri, Ajamidha, etc,,
mentioned in the Rigveda might have been historical persons.
But we cannot associate them with the localities and dynasties
which are assigned to them in the Puranas. If they existed, they
must have reigned somewhere in the Punjab and in the early
Vedic or pre-Vedic period. Either there were kings in the
well-known dynasties who bore these names and were confused
by later writers with the earlier ones, or these names which had
become legendary in later times were put in the genealogies to
add to the glories of the dynasties by connecting them with
those famous heroes, as was often done in more modern genealogies.
“How those pedigrees have been elaborated, even at a
comparatively late date, by court poets who sought to magnify the
the ancient lineage of their lord, may sometimes be seen at a
glance. For example, in the genealogy of the Ikshakus of Kosala
the immediate predecessors of Prasenajit, the contemporary of
Buddha, are Sakya, Suddhodana, Siddhartha, and Rahula. That
K to say, the eponymous hero of Budda’s clan, Buddha’s father,
Buddha himself, and his son have all been incorporated in
the dynastic list of the kings of Kosala.” (Cam. Ind. Hist. I. p.306).
Even in historical times we find, for instance, one Vikramaditya

19

146

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

appropriating the stories of several kings of different times •
Moreover, Bloomfield in his Rigveda Repetitions (p.634) warns
us against putting absolute trust on later traditions, as embodied
in books like Anukramanika, assigning such and such hymn to
such and such person, unless corroborated by internal evidences.
On the other hand, the Pauranic kings cannot all be called
mythical, the descriptions regarding some of them at least being
so realistic inspite of exaggerations.

One thing strikes me as important. It is about a century
after the Kurukshetra war that the ‘‘past” and its traditions are
closed and the “future” begun. I agree with Mr. Pargiter that at
that time the old traditions were collated and put in a definite form.
Formerly, perhaps, the traditions remained scattered in different
forms in the mouths of the Sutas or bards, and as the system of
writing was not in use, the genealogies often got confused, especially
with regard to the distant past, and were sometimes spurious. We
may believe that when the collection took place every effort was
made to critically examine the existing traditions. But still a good
deal of confused and false matters escaped detection and were
embodied in the collection. This collection then became
stereotyped, and was the principal source of later Epic and
Pauranic traditions. The false matters, along with the genuine,
thus obtained wide currency, and cannot be regarded as true
because of repetitions in different books, which are all inheritors
of the same stock.

The third theory of Mr. Pargiter is that the Ikshakus of
Ajodhya were a non-Aryan people and that Brahminism was first
an institution of the non-Aryans, which was adopted and modi-
fied by the Aryans, The theory is impossible on the very face of

APPENDIX

147

it. As regards the Ikshakus, what dcr the philologists, ethnologists
and tradition say ? According to Sir G. Grierson, the people of
Ajodhya stand nearer in relation to the people of the Gangetic
Doab, who, according to Mr. Pargiter, are descended of the pure
Aila stock, than the people of Behar, Bengal, Berar, the Punjab,
who are said to be descendants of the family of Pururavas.
According to Sir H. Risley, the people of Ajodhya betray less
non-Aryan characteristics than the people of eastern and southern
provinces. This is the more striking as, according to Mr.
Pargiter, the kingdom of Ajodhya was never subjugated by the
Ailas, and retained its greatness till the time of Ajatasatru and
Gautama Buddha, and even then the conquest was made not by
the pure Aryans of the Gangetic Doab but by the mixed Aryans
of Magadha, What does tradition say about the Ikshakus ?
Though Mr. Pargiter is Mich a vigorous champion of tradition
and seeks, to build up his theory on tradition, he ignores all
traditions, Brahmin and Kshatiiya, as regards the origin of the
Ikshakus. First, almost all traditions agree in making Ikshaku a
son and Pururavas a grandson of Manu, thus making them
related to each other. The only passage in the Rigveda where
the word Ikshaku occurs indicates the relationship of Ikshaku
with the Purus. If we are to reject the common descent of the
Ikshakus and the Purus from Manu, how can we accept the
common descent of Puru, Yadu, Turvasha, Anu and Druhyu from
Yajati, who is as mythical or as historical as Vaivaswata Manu ?
Again, though tradition calls such Aryan kings as Madhu, Kamsa,
Jarasandha, etc. Danavas or non-Aryans, how many of the
Ikshaku kings are called by such names ? In the Rigveda we find
mention of many Dasyu kings and tribes, bat it is surprising that

148

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

there should be no raentioii'^ of the Ikshakus in that connection,
though hundreds of hymns were composed by the Vasisthas, who,
according to Mr. Pargiter, had been connected with them from
the beginning.

Mr. Pargiter seems to think that a vast mass of Pauranic
tradition relates to pre-Vedic history, and that the Rigveda is a
comparatively recent composition which contains many non-Aryan
ideas and institutions and even hymns disguised in Aryan garb,
“The fact that those earliest Manva (non- Aryan) hymns appear
now in Sanskrit does not disprove their non-Aila origin, for
they would naturally have been Sanskritized in course of time,
as has been noticed above with regard to non-Aryan names”
(p. 313). Here, too, Mr. Pargiter ignores the almost unanimous
tradition that the Rigvedic hymns were among the earliest
creations of Brahma, With the exception of a few possibly later
hymns, it is admitted by European scholars as well as Indian
tradition that the hymns in general are of extreme antiquity, so
far as India is concerned, much earlier in point of time than the
so-called Treta age from which time the traditional history
begins. Even the solitary statement in the Puranas (Vayu 57,
39f ; Brahmanda 11.29,43 ; Matsya 142, 4of), quoted by Mr.
Pargiter to show that the Rigveda was not one of the earliest
creations, more disproves than proves his conclusions. For it
is said there that the mantras or hymns were put together (not
composed) at the beginning of the Treta age. His attempts to
prove the comparatively recent age of the Rigveda mostly turn
on the question of the identity of the Rigvedic Sudas and the
North Panchala Sudas and of the correctness of the place assigned
to him in the genealogical tables. Unfortunately, when the pre*

APPENDIX

149

mises are more than doubtful the conclusions cannot be accepted
as true.

When it is stated that the I ndo- Aryans received the Brahminical
institution and even hymns from the conquered non- Aryans, it is
assumed that they adopted the principal religious rites also. It is
improbable that the Aryans retained their own religious rites,
but selected non-Aryan priests, and not only entrusted them with
the custody of their religion but made them the highest class in
society. So if they selected their priests from among non-Aryans it
must be that they had accepted the creed of those people, the proper
practices of which were little known to them and which, therefore,
necessitated the services of non-Aryan priests. For the Indo-Aryans
to have received their creed and priesthood from the conquered
non- Aryans is by itself too big an assumption, especially when it is
known that the Indo- Aryan tongue and social institutions practically
ousted the non- Aryan in Northern India. Moreover, if the Indo-
Aryans had borrowed the Brahminical creed from the non-Aryans,
the religious literature of the Indo-Aryans like the Vedas and the
Brahmanas must have contained a large percentage of non-Aryan
words and phrases. The Europeans in accepting Christianity have
absorbed a large number of Hebrew words in their literatures.
Similarly, the Dravidians in Southern India have with the religion
borrowed a good many words of the Aryan language. The
Mahomedans in India and elsewhere use good many Arabic words.
But it is strange that, though the Brahminical institution is said to
be a borrowed one and many of the hymns to have been composed
by non- Aryan priests, there are so few non- Aryan words even
in the earliest Sanskritized Brahminical literature, the Vedas.
Further, is the religion of the Rigveda so fundamentally different

150

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

from that of the Indo-Europeans, both in ideas and mythologies ?
Which part of the Vedic religion can be called foreign to Aryan
genius ? Again, if the conquerors had adopted the creed of the
conquered, why are the latter called in the Rigveda ‘‘devoid of
religion,'’ “without religion," “unsacrificing," and “godless" ? The
Vasisthas are regarded by Mr. Pargiter as the non-Aryan priests
to the Ikshaku kings, who joined the Alias when the latter had
conquered the greater part of Northern India. “In fact, in the
Ganges- Jumna doab, the region specially occupied by the Alias, it
is not until Dusyanta’s and Bharata’s period that any brahman
became connected with them as priests” ( p* 310 )• And the
V^asistha family for the first time came into connection with the
Alias in the time of Paijavana Sudas (p. 207). Now let us see
what we can learn about these Vasisthas from the Rigveda itself.
Practically the whole of the VHth book of the Rigveda is the
composition of the Vasisthas. Though they are said to have
been connected with the Ikshaku family from the earliest times,
is it not surprising that in the whole book there is not a single
mention of the Ikshakus ? Again, if there can be traced any
difference as to creed between the so-called non-Aryan Vasistha
and Aryan Viswamitra of the time, it is that Vasistha is a special
worshipper of Varuna (Rig VIL 88), who is called his father (Rig
VII. 33.11), and Viswamitra of Agni, to whom alone about half
the number of hymns composed by the Viswamitra family are
addressed. Now if there be any god besides Dyaus in the Vedic
mythology who can claim to belong to the Indo-European period,
i.e. before the separation of the European and Indian branches
of the Aryan family, it is undoubtedly Varuna. Then though
himself a non- Aryan, Vasistha utters bitterest imprecations against

I

APPENDIX

151

the Rakshas, a name which, as Mr. Pargiter knows, was given
by the Indo-Aryans to non-Aryans (p. 290) and evil spirits. He
invokes Indra and Varuna to kill the Dasa enemies of Sudas. More-
over, in the hundreds of hymns addressed by the Vasistha family,
how many words and ideas are there which can be traced to non-
Aryan sources ? On the contrary, scholars like Max Muller regard
Vasistha as ‘hhe very type of the Arian Brahmin.*^

It has been shown that at one lime the Dravidians formed the
main population of Northern India before the coming of the
Aryans. If that be so, the non- Aryan Ikshakus must have been
either Dravidians or Mongolians, who might have shared lands
with the Dravidians. Now we know that Brahminism is not an
indigenous institution among either of these races, as can be seen
from the existing institutions of the survivors in the north and
south, or outside India. Of course, there were medicine men
among all savage races, but there was no Brahmin caste. If the
Brahminical institution had been a pre-Aryan one in India we
must expect to find its survival, even in a corrupt form, among one
or other of the various non- Aryan races of India. But unfortunate-
ly there is nothing of the sort, no Brahminical hierarchy, no Brah-
minical yajna or sacrifice. On the contrary, we find that the chief
enemies of the Brahminical institutions were the Dasas or Dasyus of
the Rigveda and Rakshasas of the Ramayana and the Puranas.

The chief argument of Mr, Pargiter is that the earliest Brahmin
families were all attached to non-Aryan courts, as the Vasisthas in
Ajodhya, Chyavanas in the Saryata country, the Usinas-Sukras at
the Daitya court, the Agastyas in the Deccan, and that the earliest
Aila kings had no priests, and were rather antagonistic to the
Brahmins (pp. 304-305). The first part of his argument stands

152

THE ARYANISATION OF INDIA

only on the supposition that the Ikshakus and the Saryatas were non-
Aryans, which has been proved to be untenable. The second part
is based on the traditional list of kings who were enemies of, and
were destroyed by, Brahmins. In this list are to be found Puru^
ravas and Nahusha, the first and third king of the Aila dynasty.
But are they the only kings who were the enemies of the Brahmins?
In the list of such bad kings as given in Manu (VII, 41) we do not
come across the name of Pururavas, but we find the names of
Vena and Nimi along with Nahusha. Vena was of the race of
Atri (Harivamsa, V.), and Nimi was a son of Ikshaku, i.e. both
of them were, according to the classification of Mr. Pargiter, non-
Aryan. Another name is that of Sudas, who is called in Manu
the son of Pijavana, but who is really Kalmasapada Saudasa, an
Ikshaku king, who destroyed the sons of the priest Vasistha, Thus
it is seen that enmities with Brahmins were not a monopoly of the
Aila kings. Again, the Viswamitras are held to be of the Aila race.
How is it that long before the Aila kings came into connection
with Brahmin priests, which is stated to be in the time of Dusyanta,
a scion of the Aila family had become so Brahminised that he exer-
cised equal influence with their hereditary priests, the Vasisthas,
at the Ikshaku courts of Trisanku and Harischandra ?

I fully believe that Hinduism owes a large part of its substance
to Dravidian influences, and it is difficult to say whether in its
modern form it is more Dravidian than Aryan. I can concede
that some of the prevailing cults, of Phallic Siva, Radha-Krishna,
Ganesha, Naga, etc., betray strong Dravidian characteristics. But as
regards the Vedic religion one cannot believe that it is a Dravidian
creed, only modified by Aryan influences. Rather, the Vedic
institutions are Aryan in the main foundation, but absorbing more
and more Dravidian ideas and practices as the Aryans advance
more into the interior of the country. It is likely that in the
transformation of the Vedic religion into modern Hinduism the
original Aryan basis has been largely buried under non-Aryan
superstructure, but that is a different topic and has nothing to do
with Mr. Pargiter’s hypothesis of the Dravidian origin of Vedic
Brahminism.

INDEX

Abhimanyu, 50.

Acvini, 53.

Aeolic, 56.

Afghanistan, 16, 23, 26, 36, 66,85.
f Africa, 20, 90.

(African, 10.

Agastya, 96, 151.

Agni, 76, 102, 150.

Ahura Mazda, 19, 134.

Aikshaka, 113.

Ada, 140, 147, 150-52.
Airyanavaejo, 19, 21, 134.
Aitareya Aranyaka, 43, 47, 54,

69.

Aitareya Brahmana, 50, 56, 68,

70, III.

Aja, 105, 107, 123.

Ajamidha, 145.

Ajatasatru, 126, 128, 147.
Alexander, 8, 42, 72, 135, 13S.
Alinas, 104, 107.

Allahabad, 125, 140, 14T.

Alpine, 9, 37, 38, 61,

Alwar, 104.

Aniarakosha, 18.

/ America, 5, 90.

(American, 5.

Amurtarayas, 115.

Ananda era, 94,

Anarsani, 105,

Anderida, 85.

Andhaka, 119.

Andhra, 59, 68, 69, 97, 100.

Anga, 34, 68, 70-2, 91, 117, 123.
Anglo-Saxon, ii, 85, 86, 88, 92.
Anu, 34, 35, 103, 107, 116-1S,
142, 147.

Anuha, 52.

Anukramanika, 146.

Apaya, 102,

'Arab, 38, 138.

Arabia, 38.

Arabian, 106, 135.

Arabic, 4, 149.

Aranyaka, 44, 45, 48-50.

Aratta, 71.

Arctic, 19.

Aristanemi, 58, 59.

Arjuna, 50, 120-22, 143. See also
Kartavir} a.

Armenian, 2.

Arsacidae, 39.

Artairanyu, 61.

Artatama, 60.

Arthasastra, 73, 95, 1 19, 127.
Aruni Uddalaka, 126,

' Arya, 66, 73-76, 140.

Aryan, 1-7, 9, 10-23, 25-32, 34'
38, 57, 60-1, 64-5, 67-70,

. 72-4, 76-7, 79, 81-4, 89-

102, 105, 107,114-15,117,
124, 129-31, 133-41, i43»
146-52.

Aryadharma, 74.

Aryavarta, 74, 113, 124.
Aryo-Dravidian, 30, 36.
Asandivanta, in.

(Asia, 58, 62, 63, 13T.

(Asiatic, 23.

Asia Minor, 23, 61, 63.

Asikni, 66.

Asmaka or Assaka, 71, 72, 126.
Asoka, 38, 43, 44, 94, 99, 100.
f Assam, 82, 98, 142.

(Assamese, 28.
f Assyria, 61, 63.

(Assyrian, 60, 65,

Asura, 6.

Asurivasin, 81.

Asvalayana Srauta Sutra, 127.
Asvapati, 117.

Aswamedha, 127*

Atharvan, 12.

Atharvaveda, 50,68, 79, no, iii,
i37‘

Athens, 127.

Atlantic, 20.

Atri, 152.

20

154

INDEX

Attic, 56.

Aurva Bhargava, 122 .

Ausija Kakshivant, 81.

Australian, 4, 83.

Austrian, 144.

Avanti, 72, 121, 125, 126, 128.
Avesta, 5 , 55 , 57. 77- See also
Zend,

Avikshit, 122.

Ayodhya, 59, 123, 14 1, 144, 146,
147, 151. See also Oudh.

Ayu, 120.

Baal, 106.
rBaberu, 106.

>5 Babylon, 22, 60, 61, 63, 106.
(Babylonian, 22, 62, 65, 131.
Bahu, 122.

BajiRao, 120.

Balaji Rao, 121.

Balbutha, 88.

Bali, 34, II 7 -

Balkan, 22.

Baltic, 88.

Bana, 126.

Banara, 71, 96.

Barhadratha dynasty, 115,
Barnett, 33, 36,

Batin, 83.

Baudhayana, 70.

Beas, 66, 117.

(Behar, 34, 35, 67, 69, 70, 89,
) 93, 114, 117, 127, 142, 147.

(Behari, 28.

Bejoy Sinha, 72.
f Belgian, 4.

(Belgium, 5,

Beluchistan, 26, 77, 138.

Benares, 67. See also Kasi.
Benfey, 20.

Bengal, 33, 34, 67, 69, 70.72,82,
94> 9S, 100, 117, 142, 147.
Bengalee, 94.

Bengali, 28, 78, 92.

Berar, 69, 70, 95, 97, 119. 147 -
See also Vidarbha.

Berbers, 9.

1 Bhaga, 6.

■ Bhagavata Purana, 80, 84.

! Bhagiratha, 141.

; Bhalanases, 104, 107,

; Bhandarkar, 79, 95, 97.

, Bharadvaja, 106.

Bharadvajiyas, 39.
t ^Bharata, 102, 103, 105, io 5 , io8,
. 3 no, 116, 125, 144, 145, 150.

; (Bharata Dauhshanti, no, 143.

I Bharatavarsha, 102,

Bharati, 102.

I Bhargava, 52, 121, 122, 142.

! Bhasa, 125.

I Bhattoji Dikshit, 40.
j Bhawalpur, 135.
i Bheda, 107.

Bhils, 83, 84,

Bhima, 70, 144.
i Bhimasena, 51, in.

I Bhisma, 52, 144.

Bhoja, 95, 119, 121, 143.

' Blanford, 23,

Bloomfield, in, 146.

Bogu, 6.

Bohemia, 22.

I Bopp, I, 2.
j Brahma, 74, 117, 14S.

; Brahmadatta, 52, 128, 144.

I f Erahmana, 19, 31, 32, 44-51,53,
54. 56, 67, 70, 81, 92, 95,104,

: 1 10810, 112, 114, 115, iiS,

119,149.

I Biahmamc, 27, 35, 132.
f Brahmanical, 68, 91.
i Brahmanda Purana, 148.

I Brahmaputra, 20.

I Brahmarshidesha, 27, 30.

; Brahmavarta, 27, 30.

, Brahmi, 43, 44.

: Brahmin, 12, 43, 67, 70, 91, 92,
94, 96-9, 108, III, 117, 121,
127, 147, 151, 152.

^ Brahminical, 93, 94, 96, 98, 107,
j 108, 1 49, 151.

I Brahrainism, 94, 98, 114, 146,

L 151^ 152.

Brabmo Samaj, 94*

INDEX

155

Brahui, 77.

Bribu, 105, 106.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 51,
112, 126.

Brihadbala, 59.

Brihaddevata, 113.

Brihadratha, 115,

Britain, 85, 86.

.Britibli, 88.

(Briton, 85.

Broca, 4.

Buddha, 32, 42, 48, 72, 93, 106,
125-28, 145, 147. See also

Gautama.

^Buddhism, 42, 47, 57, 71, 93,
94, 98, 99.

Buddhist, 6, 42, 46, 48, 72, 99,
125.

Buhler, 43.

Burma, 82.

Cadwallon, 88.

Caldwell, 78, 80.

Cambay, Gulf of, 120, 123.

Caria, 42.

Caspian Steppes, 76.
rCaucasian, 8, 9.

ICaucasic, 37.

Caucasus, 21.

Celebes, 83.
f Celts, I, 10,

iCeltic, 2, 21, 32, 36, 37, 92.
Celto-Slav, 9, 61.

Centaurs, 6.

Central Asia, 2, 20-3, 26,

133*

Central Provinces, 95.

Cerdic, 60.

Ceylon, 6, 72, 73, 83.

Chaitanya, 94.

Chakrayudha, 125.

Chanibal, 142.

Chanakya, 94.

Chanda, 31, 32, 36, 84.
Chandala, 83.

Chandogya Upanishad, 78, i
117.

Chandragupta, 73, 94.

Chavee, 10.

Chedi, 72, 89, 104, TT3, T19, T23.
Chenab, 66, 103.

Cheras, 69.

Chester, 88.

(China, 131.

I Chinese, 4, 56.

, Chitaldurg, 99.
i Chitral. 26,

I Chola, 41, 71, 72, 100.

Chota Nagpur, 95.

Christian, 6.

Christian era, 79, 99.

Christianity, 149.

Chumuri, 105.

' Chyavana, 52, 143, 151.

I Comparative Ethnology, 2, 8,
j Comparative Grammar, i.

I Comparative Mythology, 5.

1 Comparative Philology, i, 2, 5, 21.

I Comparative Sociology, 10.

; Cophu, 25. See also Kabul and
! Kubha.

Croesus, 43.

Cuno, 20.

Cutch, 71-
Cyrus, 43*

Dahae, 76.

Daitya, 151-
Danastuti, 104,

Danava, 147.
i Danda, 120.

' Dandaka, 95, 119.

; Dandakaranya, 71.
t Dane, 144.

; Darius, 8, 42, 43, 44-
I Das, Dr. Abinaschandra, 1 29-38.
Dasa or Dasyu, 16, i7» 73*7 j 79»
81, 83, 86-9, 105, 132, 133*
i47»

Dasaratha, 60, 123, i43»

Dasi, 87,

Dauhshanti Bharata, no, X43.

; Deccan, 33, 35* 67, 69-71, 77-»i
95, 99* 134* 143* ^5**

Delhi, 3T, 134.

156

INDEX

Delitzsch, 3.

Deluge, i 37 » 140-

De Michelis, 10.

De Mortillet, 10.

Deorham, 88 .

Devakiputra Krishna, Si.

Devapi, 109.

Dharmapala, 125.

Dhvasan Dvaitavana, 112.
Dhritarastra, 50, 81, 115, 144.
Dhuni, 105.

Dilipa, 123.

Divodasa, 87, 106, 144,

Dneiper, 22.

Doab Gangetic, 16, 28, 121, 142,
i 47 i 150*

Doric, 56. «

Dravida, 81,

Dravidian, 5, ii, 34-7^ 65, 76-84,
87, 92, 96-101, 121, 134, 137,

i 49 > 151* 152*

Dribhika, 105.

Drishadvati, 27, 66, 102.

Druhyu, 103, 107,116-18, 147,
Drupada, 52,

Durmukha, 112.

Dushyanta, 118, 150, 152.
Dvaitavana, 112. See also Dvasan.
Dwapara, 124.

Dwaraka, 123, 126.

Dyaus, 0 - 8 , 64, 150.

(Egypt, 7, 61-3, 131.’

\Egyptian, 7, 62, 63, 131.
Elysium, 18.

/England, 6o.

^English, 10, II, 88, 92, 144.
Eocene, 13 1.

Eos, 6,

Epic, 9, 29, 34.96, 103, 104, no,
113, 118, 120, 132, 135, 146.
Erinys, 5.

Ethiopian, 8,

Euphrates, 22, 60, 63. i

Eurasian, 37. I

rEurope, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 17, '
j 20, 22, 58, 61, 62, 133. :

(European, 4, 5, 9-14, 23, 26, 79, ■
90, 1:29, 133, 138, 148-50. I

Feist, 10.
Fligier, 20.
fFrance, 10.
(French, 9,

Gairikshit Purukutsa, 8t.

Galacia, 22.

Galchic, 37, 38.

Gallic, 10.

Gandak, 68.

rOandhara, 25, 42, 43, 72, 117,
j ti8, 142.

(Gandharis, 68.

Gandharvas, 6.

Ganesha, 152.

'Ganges, i6, 25, 27, 30, 31, 66,
67, 76, 81, 88, 92, no, 123,
125, 130, 141, 143, 150.
.Gangetic, 16, 28,30,32,33, 35,
81, 82, 86, 87,91,94,97, 105,
120, 121, 130, 134, 141. 142.
147.

Gargya Balaki, 112.

Gauls, 7.

Gautama, 42, 47, 48, 72, 93, 125-
28, 147. See also Buddha.
Guiger, 20.

j German, i, 9.

(Germany, 10, 20.

Gifford Lectures, 54.

Giles, 20.

Gilghit, 26.

Godavery, 70, 71, 120, 143.
Goldijtucker, 40, 42.

Gonds, S3, 84.

Gotama Rahugana, 113.

Goths, 63.

^Greece, i, 12, 55, 137.

(Greek, i, 2, 5, 6, 12, 15.16, 25,
42. 43> 55. 56*

Green, J. R., n.

Grierson, Sir George, 27, 31, 3^1
38, 87, 9S, 117, 142, 147*
Grimm. Jacob, 20.

Gujarat, 28, 31, 33, 35, 36. 7 o, 104
Guptas, 32.

Haddon, 23, 35, 38.
Haihaya, 119-23, 142, i44*

INDEX

157

Hiiranyanabha, 114, See also
Para Atnara.

Hakra, 135.

Hale, 20 ,

Hall, H. R., 60, 61.

Hamites, 9.

Hapta-Hendu, 19. See also
Sapta-Sindhava.

Harappa, 65, 80.

Harischandra, 143, 152.
Harivainsa, 152.

Harshacharita, 126.

Hastinapur, 109, 123, 125,

Haug, 56.

Ha veil, II,

Hebrew, 149,

Hehn, 10.

Helios, 6.

Hellenes, 137.

Heptarchic, 88.

Hercules, 73.

Hibbert Lectures, 7.

Hillebrandt, 76.

( Himalayas, 27, 66, 121, 138,
^ 39 , 141.

Himalayan, 82, 139, 140.
Himavanta, 66.

Hindi, 78.

Hindus, 9, 10, 12, 13, iS.
Hinduism, 98, 152.

Hindukush, 18.

Hindustan, 28, 32.

Hindustani, 28.

Hirt, 20.

Plittites, 60, 6r, 63.

Hiuen Tsang, 43.

Ho^nle, A. F, R.^ 26, 27, 29-32,

Homeric, 55.

Hommel, 3.

Huns, 63.

Hungary, 20.

Hydaspes, 138. See also Jhelum.
Hyksos, 62.

Iberians, 10.

Ida, 60.

Ikshaku, 58-60, 95, 113, 118-20,

124, 128, 143, 145-8, 150-2,

See also Aikshaka.

Ila, 140.

Ilibisha, 105.

f India, 7-9, iT-20, 22,25-30, 32,
34-7, 40'4 i57> 60, 65-7, 69-
73. 76-9) 81-2, 85, 91-100,
102, 118, 120,122,124, 126,
1 . 128, 129, 131, 138, 140-3,

i 1 14B-5T.

Indian, i, 2, 4-7, 9, 11-T7, 19,
39) 4O) 61, 64, 73, 77, 79) B2,
: 103, 121, 129, 133-35, 138,

i [ 140, 145, 148, 150-

' Indo-Aryan, 7, 16, 17, 19, 25,

I 28, 30, 31, 33, 38, 39, 41, 49,
57) 60, 64, 66-8, 70, 77,

78, 80, 84-9L 97) 99) lOL
140-43) M9) 151*
Indo-European, 4, 12, 23, 61,

! 64, 77, 138, 150-

I flndo-German, 4, 9, 10, 23,

I \Indo-Germanic, 9, 14*

I Indo-lranian, 65, 137, 138.

; India, 6, 8, 18, 33,50)60,64,

1 74-6, 79,85, 105, 136, i37.’f5i

I Indralaya, 18.

j Indus, 16, 25, 29, 30, 44, 66-8,

' 70, 71, 76, 80, 81, 86, 103,

118, 130, 134) 135) 1381 14^*
flonia, 42.

^ Ionian, 42, 43.

I f Iran, 22, 37, 38, 76, 97.

I Irania, 37,

Iranian, 2, 6, 12, 15, 19, 21, 38,

1 64, 79, 134*

[Iranic, 37, 38.

Irano-Dra vidian, 37.

Islam, 93.

Iswaraputra, 73.

Italy, 6.

Jacobi, 47) 5^-
Japyyapeta, 95.

Jaimini, 52.

Jaiminiya Brahmana, 114.
Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana,
70.

158

INDEX

Jaina, 58.

Jainism, 93, 94, 98.

Jamadagni, io8, 121.

Jamadagnya Rama, 52.

Janaka, 126, 127.

Janaaiejaya, 50-2, iio-ii, 124-5,
144.

Jarasandha, 147.

Jasadata, 61.

Jayaswal, 39.

Jaypur, 104,

Jhelum, 66, 138.

Jones. Sir William, i, 2.

Jumna, 27, 31, 57, 66, 67, 76,
81, 88, 102, 103, 104, 107, no,
119, 120, 123, 143, 150.

Jupiter, 6.

Jutland, II.

Jyotisha, 53.

Kabul, 25, 26,66. See also Kubha.
Kachchha, 71.

Kaegi, 57.

Kakshivant Ausija, 81.

Kalara, 127.

Kali Age, 50, 58, 124.

Kalinga, 34, 70-2, 91, 92, 97, 117.
Kalmasapada Saudasa, 145, 152.
Kamboja, 72,

Kamsa, 128, 147.

Kanarese, 99.

Kanchi, 99, 100,

Kanouj, 115, 121, 122, 125.

Kanva, 59.

Kanyakubja, 115.

Kapila, 48.

Karala, 127.

Karandhama, 122.

Karikas, 39, 41.

Kartavirya, 143, 144.

{ Kashmir, 33, 66, 142.

Kashmiri, 28.

Kasi, 31, 35, 50, 67, 69, 72, 114,
II5, II7, 120, 122, 123, T 28 ,
144.

Kassite, 22, 60, 64.

Kasu, 104.

Kathaka Samhita, 40.

Kathasaritsagara, 40.

Kathiwar, 33, 70, 119.

I Katyayana, 39-42, 72.

I Kaurava, 52,

; Kausambi, 122, 125, 128.
Kaushitaki Brahmana, 19, 53,
108, 112.

Kaushitaki Upanishad, 69,
Kautilya, 73, 94, 119, 125, 127.
Keane, 23, 35, 3S.

Keith, 43, 46, 47, 49, 50, S 3 > 54 .
106, I3I.

Kekaya, 34, 117, 123.

Kerala, 41, 71, 72,

Kharosti, 44.

Khatti, 6r. See also Hittite,
Kikata, 105.

Kirman, 23,

Kirtti or Krtvi, 52.

Kiskindhya, 96.

Kistna, 95, 99, 100.

Kosala, 31J 59 ? ^ 7 ? b 8 , 7^?

89, 114-16, 128, 145.

Kossaeans, 60. See also Kassite.
Kossinna, 20.

Kraivya, 112.

Krishna, 58, 59, 73, 76, 81, 152.
Kritavirya, 121.

Krivi, 103, nr, 112.

Krumu, 66.

Kshatriya, 91, 93, 94, 124, 147.
Kshemaka, 125.

Kubha, 25, 66. See also Kabul.
Kuhn, 5.

Kukura, 119.

Kurram, 66.

Kuru, 29, 31, 50, 69, 72, 102-4,
loS-ii, 113, 115, nS, 124,
125, 127, 128.

Kuru-Panchala, 35, ni-i6, 118,

123, 124, 142.

Kuru-Pandavas, 50, 124,
Kurukshetra, 29, 50, 58, 59, 102,

124, 126, 146,

Kurusravana, loS,

Kusa, 115, 144.

Kusika, 106.

INDEX

139

Lahiri, Durgadas, 129.
Lassen, 15, 20.

Latin, 2, 6, 15, 16.
Lavana, 119.

Lemuria, 80,

Lettic, 2.

Lichchhavis, 34, 127.
Ludhiana, 130.

Lunar family, 140.
Luschan, 38, 61,

Macdonell, 13, 43, 46, 50,80, 106.
Macedonian, 1^7.

Machha, 72.

Madhu, 1 19, 147,

Madhupura, 119.

Madhyadesha, 26, 67, 86, 91-3.

See also Midland.

Madraka, 34, 117.

Madura, 73.

Magadha, 3^? 58, 59, C8-72, 91-3,
IIS, 1 17. i 23 > 124. i26, 128,
147.

Magha, 53.

Mahabharata, rS, 27, 50, 69, 71,
84, 108, 109, TiJ'T3, t^ 8, 143
Mahapadma Nanda, 5c, 58, 93.
rMaharastra, 33, 35, 95, 97, 98,
j 100, 1 19,

(.Mahratta, 28, 35-8, 120-1, 142.
Mahavira, 58, 93.

Mahidasa Aitareya, 81.

Mahismati, 119.

Mahomedan, 6, 100, 149.

Maine, ii.

Maitrayaniy Samhita, 136.
Maitrayaniya Upanishad, 48.
Malavalli, 99.

Malaya, 8r.

Malla, 72.

Malwa, 35, 36, 67, 119, 120, 143,
Mandhairi, 60, 120, 123, 145.
Mantra period, 48.

Manu, 1 8, 27, 80, Sr, 140, 147.
Manusmriti, 74, 108, 143, 152.
Manva, 148.

Manyu, 75.

March, 92.

Marttikavata, 119.

Marut or Maryttas, 60.

Marutta, 118, 122,

Matachi, 78.

Mathava, 67, 68.

Mathura, 73, 95, 104, 119,
Matsya, 31, 69, So, 104, 112*14.
Matsya Parana, 81, 148.

Maurya, 32, 94, 98, 126.

Max Muller, i, 5, 20, 46, 49, 54,

55^ ^51-

Medes, 61.

Mediterranean, 9, 63, 106.
Medo*Persian, 62,

Megasthenes, 73.

Meerut, 125.

Mercury, 7.

Meru, 18.

Mesopotamia, 6r, 63, 140.
Midland, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34,
1 1 7, 142. See also Ma-
dhyadesha.

Miocene, 130, 131, 133.

Mitanni, 60, 64,

Mithila, 123, 127.

Mitra, 6, 60, 64.

Mlechchha, 74, iiS.

Mohenjo i>>aro, 65, 80.

Mommsen, 20.
TMongol, 35.
^Mongolian, 8, 10,

Mongolo-Turki, 37.
Mon-Khmer, 36, 82,
Morgan, 65.

Moulton, 55.
Muchukunda, 120.
Mudgala, 144.

Muir, 3, r6, 81-
^^ujavant, 68.

Munda, 36, 82, 83.
Mutibas, 68.

Myer, E., 23.

34i 35»

Naga, 30, T24, 125, f44, rs2.
Nahubha, 115, 120, 145, 152#
Nakbhatras, 53.

Nala, 144.

160

INDEX

Nanda, 32, 39, 50, 58, 93, 94, i^S.j
Nasatyas, 6, 6o, 64,
fNegro, 4.

\Negroid, 8.
neo-Latin, 5.

Nepal, 128.

Nerbudda, 37, 66, 81, 120, 121,
142.

Nichakshus, 125.

Nikayas, 71.
fNimi, 1 13, 1 14, 152.

\Nimi Jataka, 127.

Nirukta, 46. See also Yaska,
Nishada, 83, 84, 90.

Noah, 80.
non-Aila, 148.

non- Aryan, 69, 71,74, 85, 89-94,

96, 141, 146,148-52.
non-Brahmin, 99.
non-Dravidian, 4, 9,

Nordic, 9, 38.

Oldenberg, 106, 127.

Oiigocene, 131.

Olympus, 137.

Oppert, 2.

Oraons, 84,

/Orissa, 34,69, 70, 117, 142.
(Oriya, 28.

Oudh, 28, 31, 33, 33, 67, 1 14,
I2C-4, T41, 143. See also
Ayodhya.

Oxus, 2r,

Padmapravritakam, 40.

Padma Purana, 84,

Paijavana, 145. See also Sudas.
Pakthas, 104, 107.

Palestine, 61, 63.

Pali-Buddhist, 31.

Pallava, 99, too.

Panchajana, 143.

Panchala, 31, 52, 69, 72, 89, 103,
108, 112, 114, 118, 143, 145,
148. See also Kuru-Panchala.
Panchama, 84.

Panchavimsa Brahmana, 113.

Panda vas, 29, 50, 51, 109, m,

124, 144, See also Kuru-
Pandavas..

Pandya, 41, 71-3, 95.

Pani, 105, 106, 132.

Panik, 105.

I Panini, 39-43, 46, 48, 54, 71, 72.

, Panipat, 12 t.

I Para Atnara, 81, 114.

Parasurama, 93, 121, 122.

' Pargiter, F. E., 50, 52, 58, 59,

103, 1 2 1, 140-4, 146-8, 150-2.
Paribhashas, 41.

Parikshit, 50, 51, no, in, 124,

T27.

Parjanya, 6.

, Parsees, 37,
j Parsvanath, 59.

I Parthia, 39.

! Parushni or Ravi, 66, 103, 107.

I Patanjali, 39, 40, 41.

I Paula, T44.

Pauranic, 31, 34, 50, 84, 103,

104, no, 113-116, 1 18, i 2 g,
' 35 . 140. 143. ' 44 , 146, 148.

Paurava, 58, 115, 119, 1^3, [42,
' 47 .

Penka, to, 20.

Perkunus, 6.

( Persia, i, 5, 6, 13, 17, 21-3, 25,
36, 40, 56, 138, 140.

Persian, r, 2, 4, 5, 9, 13, 43, 44,
57 . 132-

Persian Gulf, 37, 63, 106.

Perunu, 6.

Peschel, g.

I Phalguni, 53.

I fPhallic, 152,

' tPhallus-worshipper, 79.
i Phcenician, 3, 7, 106.

Pictet, 20.

; Pijavana, 106, 143, 152.

; Piscium, 53.
t Pishacha, 27, 38.

! Posche, 10.
j Pott, 20.

I Pracheta, ii 8 .

' Pradyota, 59, 125, i26«

Prakrit, 99,

INDEX

161

Prasenajit, 12Z, 145,

Prasniputra, 81. • *

Pratardana, 122, 143.

Pratipa, 5^, 109, iii.

Pratisthana, 140.

Prativindhya, 144,

Pravahana Jaivali, 112.

Pre- Aryan 65, 151,

Pre-Dra vidian, 36, 81-3,
Pre-Vedic, 64, 80, 145, 148.
Projapati, 136,

Prsata, 52.

Prussia, 124.

Pulindas, 68, 69.

Pundra, 34, 68, 69, 73, 91, g 2 ,
117.

Punic, 106.

Punika, 126.

f Punjab, 16, t 7, 25-8, 30, 31, 33-
I 6, S7, 65-7, 69, 70, 7 r, 77, 80,
I 81, 85-7, 89, 90, 103, T17,
-! 120, 130, T31, 133, 134 137,

I 138, i39> 141- 14^, i4S> H7-
Punjabee, 91.

Punjabese, 27, 87.

Purana, 50, 58-60, 69, 81, 84, 93,
94, 104, 109, ITT, ii5-i9» ^^47
141, 143, 145, 148, 151. See
also Pa uranic.

Puru, 102, T03, T06-8, no, 113,
116, 118, 144, 147. See also
Paurava.

Purukutsa, 60, 81, 107, T13, 144.
Pururavas, 1 1 5, 120, 1 40, 1 42,
145, 147, 152.

Radha-Krishna, 152,

Raghu, 123, 143.

Rahula, 145.

Rakhas or Rakshasas, r6, 30, 71,
77 , 96, 13^, 133, 15 1 .
Rajasuya, 1 12.

Rajputana, ^8,35,66,119, 130,
134, 13s, i37v
Rama, 52, 96, 143,

Ramayana, 71, 117, 1^3, iM,
Rapson, 30, 38*

Rathaesthas, 38.

Rattikas or Rattas, 38.

Ravana, 96, 121.

Ravi, 66, 103, See also Parushni.
Ray Choudhury, Prof. H. C., 50, 51
Rhode, 20.

Rhys, 7, 20.

Rhys Davidas, 72.

'Rigveda, iS, 25, 30, 31,33,
45, 5 53-5. 57,64, 66, 73-7,
79, 80, 85, 87-9, 102, 103,
105-9, '13, 1 16, 117,129, 132-
i 8, T40-51.

Rigvedic, 46, IS, 16, 25, 27,

34, 35, 54, 55, 57, 64, 67, 79-
81, 86'88 T02, 104, 105, 109,
[ 129, 131, 132, 135, 142-4, 148.
Ristisena, 109.

Risley, Sir Herbert, 27, 28, 34,
36, 37, 82, 87, 97, T47.
Rohilkhund, 103,

/Roman, t, 2, j2, 63.

/Rome, I, 5, 12, 62.

Rudhikra, T05.

Russia, 20.

Rutot, 131.

Sahara, 68, 69.

Sabdaratnavaii, 1 8.

Sadanira, 68.

Sagara, 122, 123, 143,

Sahadeva, 144.

Saka, 39, 40.

Sakabhoji, 40.

Sakaddsa Bhaditayana, 40.
Sakaparthivadinam, 39.

Sakapriya, 40.

Sakya, 34, 59, 128, 145.

Sambara, 105, 106.

Samhita, 53, 54, 56, 109, no,

1 12, 1 19.

Samvarana, 103, 108.

Sandilya, 51.

Sanjiviputra, 81.

Sankhayana Srauta Sutra, 114.
Sankhya, 47, 48.

Sanskut, i, 2, 7, 13, 16, 20, 21,

39* 43> 44i 45> 7^» 9^»

99, 105, i2f, 132, 148.

162

INDEX

Santanu, 109. j

Sapta-Sindhava, 130, 134, 136, 1

138. See also Hapta-Hendu. I
Saranyu, 6. , |

Saraswati, 16, 27, 66, 67, 68, 8r, ;
88, 102, 104, 1 16, 123, 134, 1
i 35 » 1375 13^* 14^- ■

Sardis, 43,

Sarva, 6.

Saryata, 121, 151, 152.

Sasabindu, 144.

Sastras, 129.

Satanika Satrajita, 115.

Satapatha Brahmana, 50, 51, 67,
80, 110-15, 118, 140, 144.
Satrughna, 119.

Satudru, 66, 106. See also Sutlej.
Satvatas, 119, 143,

Satyakama Jabala, 81,

Satyavati, 52.

Satyavrata Manu, 80.

Saudasa, 145, 152,

Saunagas, 39. j

Sauvira, 34, 70, 7 1, 11 7-
Sayana, 73, 136.

Sayce, 20, 21, 65.

Scandinavia, 20.

Schlegel, 14, 20.

Schleicher, 20. ’

Schleswig, n.

Scythian, 36.

Scytho-Dra vidian, 36, 37. >

Seligman, 38.

/Semites, 9, 61, 63, 80. :

\Semitic, 3, 37, 43, 62. \

Senart, 12. i

Sergi, 20.

Shepherds, 62, See also Hyksos. 1
Shu-king, 56. I

Siddhartha, 145. See also Buddha I
and Gautama. |

Sigrus, 105, 107. ;

Simyu, 88, 105. I

^Sind, 33, 34, 65, 66, 70, 130, i
, 135, 138, 14^. I

Sindhi, 28,

Sindhu, 66, 70, 71, 73, 123. I
Sinehu, 6i, j

Sirhind, 27, 29, 86.

Sisnadevah, 79.

Sisunagas, 32,

Siva, 8, 64, 152,

Sivas, 107.

Sivis, 34.

Skylax, 42.
fSlav, T.

/Slavonic, 2, 6.

Smith, Dr. V, A., 34, 42.

Smriti, 44.

Soastos, 25. See also Suvastu.

Sol, 6.

Soma, 6, 138, 139.

Sona Satrasaha, 112.

Sramanas, 42.

Sribinda, 105.

Srinjaya, 103, ii2, 144.
Srutasena, 51, iii»

Sruti, 44.

Stein, Sir Aurel, 24,

Strabo, 23,

Subandu, 6t.

Sudas, 81, 88, 106-8, 143-5, 148,
150-2.

Suddhodana, 145,

Sudra, 84, 90, 92-4, 99.

Sudraka, 40.

Suhma, 34, 117. /

Suka, 52.

Sumatra, 83.

Sumerian, 65, 80.

Surasena, 72, 104, 113, 114, 119,
123, 126.

Surastra, 70, 71, 123.

Surjya or Suria, 6, 60, 64.
Sutarna, 61.

Sutas, 146.

Sutlej, 66, 135. See also Satudru.
Sutra, 13, 40, 44, 46-9, 1 14, 127.
Suvastu, 25, 66, 142. See also
Swat.

Suwardata, 6f.
Svapnavasavadatta, 125.

Sveta, 144.

Swat, 25, 66, 142, See also Su-
vastu.

Syria, 61, 62, 63.

INDEX

163

Taittiriya Brahmana, i8.
Taittiriya Samhita, io8.
Takshasila or Taxila, 124,
Talajangha, 121.

J Tamil, 73, 96, 98, 99, t 2 i .
(Tamilian, 97-9.

Tamirmuni, 97,

Tantric, 93.

Tartar, 22,

Taylor, 3.

Telegu, 69, 97, 99.
Tell-el-Amarna, 61.

Tertiary, 54, 130, 137.
(Teuton, 7, 10, 144.
\Teutonic, 2, 6, 9.

Thibet, 82.

Thor, 7.

Thunderer, 74.

Thurston, 82.

Thutrnose, 63.

Tilak, 18, 19, 20, 131, 137.
Tirthankara, 58.

Titikshu, 34, T17.

Tiu, 7.

Toalas, 83.

Tocharish, 23.

Traivrishna, 113.

Trasadasyu, 60, 107-9, 113, i
Treta Age, 120.

Trigarttas, 104.

Trikshi, 108,

Tripolje, 22.

Trisanku, 152.

Trita, 6.

Tritsu, 106.

Tryaruna, 60, 113.
Tukultininiv, 60.

Tundikera, 12 r.

Tura Kavasheya, 51, 81.
Turanian, 10, 133.

Turkestan, 24,

Turvasha, 33, 103, 104, 106,

1 16, 1 1 8, 143, 147.

Udayana, 125, 126.
Uddalaka, 51, 126,

Ugrasena, 51, in.

Ujfaivy, 10.

Un-Vedic, 93,

Upamasravas, 108.

Upanishad, 32, 44, 45, 47-51,
57, 78, 115, 117, 127,

Uranus, 6.

Usanas-Sukra, 151.

Ushas, 6, 19, 64, 67.

Usinara, 31, 34, 69, 104, 117.
Uttarakuru, 18.

44.

107,

Vadhryasva, 144*

Vagadha, 69,

Vaichitravirya, 81, 115. See also
Dhritarastra.

Vaidya, C. V., 29.

Vaisali, 122, 127.

Vaisampayana, 52.

Vaisvanara, iio.

Vaisya, 91.

Vaivaswata, 147.
rVajji, 72, 128.

\Vajjian, 127.

Vala, T05, 106.

Vamba, 72, 8g.

Vamsa Brahmana, 40.

Vanga, 34, 69, 71-3, 91, 92t
Varchin, 105.

Varttikas, 39-41.

Varuna, 6, 8, 150. 15 1.

Vasas, 31, 69.

Vasistha, 71, 107, 108, 123, 14^?
150-2.

Vasu, 1 1 5, 1 1 9.

Vasudeva, 58^

(Vatsa, 122, 126, 128.
\Vatsaraj, 125.
fVayu, 6.

\Vayu Purana, 126, 148.

Veda, 5, 6, 9, 13-16, 45, 56,

1 1 2, 129, 149. See also Rig-
veda,Yajurveda and Atharva-
Veda.

Vedic, 6, 14, 15, 17. 19. 28,
31. O'?. 35. 37. 39. 40. f*’
45. 50. 54-7, 59. 60, 64, 66,
68, 73, 77, 78, 87, 91, 9a,
103, 106, 1 12-14, rZ9'3i>

133, 136, 140-5, *5°, 15*'

164

^ INDEX

Vedangas, 44.

Veddas, 83.

Vena, 152.

Vendidad, 19,

Vibhisana, 96.

Vidarbha, 69, 70/71, 95, '119,
122, 123. See also Berar.
Videgha Ma^ava, 113.
rVideha, 32, 35, 67-9, 89, 113,
j 114, 122, 126, 127, 143. '

(Videban, 114.

Vijayanagar, 58.

Vikramaduja, 145.

Vindhyas, 27, 66, 67, 69, 96, 104,
i34> 142, 143-

Vipasha, 66, 106. See also Beas.
Visbanins, 107.

/Vishnu, 8*. 04.

\ Vishnu Purana, 51, 109,
Viswamitra, 68, 106-8, 150, 152.
VitAsta, 66. See' also Jhelum.
Vitihotra, 121.

Vitrahan, 6.

Vratyas, 68.

Vredenburg, 23, 138.

Vrishni, 119, 126.

Vyasa, 52.

Wales, 92,

Warren, 20.

Weber, 109. *

.Whitney, 57. »

Winternitz, 49, 57, 132.

Woden, 7, ' »

Yadava, 73/119, 123.

Yadu,^3, 35, 97, 103, 104, 106,

i° 7 . ii§, 116, 118, 119, 142-

Yajati, II 6^ 120, 147.
fYajnavalkya, 51, 52, 127.
\Yajnavalkyakanda, 51:
Y^urveda,^j i^.

Yakshu, #05, 107.

Yama, 6.

Yaska, 46, 47, 54, 73, 143. > ■

Yaudheyas, 34^ 117.

Vavanani, 4^. '

Yudhisthira, ^9. ,

Yuvanasva, 120.

Zaborowski, 20.

Zarathustra or Zoroaster, 55,
Zend, 5, 16, 20, 21. Sec also
Avesta. ^ ’■

Zeus, 6, 137,

Dr. L. D, Barnett, British Museum, England —

seems to me a thoughtful and sensible survey of

the facts, and on several important points I am pleased to find
that your views agree with mine/* (5.10.1925).

Prof A. B Keith, Edinburgh University, Scotland — ‘‘It
is decidedly advantageous to have a statement of the issues
regarding the Aryan invasion set forth clearly and effec-
tively, and I am glad to note that you have exercised a sober
and independent judgment on the various issues. While
the theories of Dr. Das and Mr. Pargiter are doubtless unaccep-
table, it is interesting to have their defects exposed in your
Appendices, because statements left uncontradicted are apt
to mislead those who are not expert at the outset of their
studies and to lead them into false paths of investigation.”
{ 2 . 10. 1925).

Prof. J. Jolly, Warzburg University, Germany — “Your
valuable work on the Aryanisation of India has been duly
received and it seems to be very useful, as it contains a
critical examination of all the various theories concerning
the immigration of the Aryans into India. The nature of
Aryan colonisation and of the Dravidian element of Indian
culture has been carefully analysed The political history
of the country has been traced back to the Vedas. The
copious Index shows what a large field has been
covered by your researches as contained in this volume.”
(6. TO. 1925),

Prof. M. Winternitz, Prague University, Czechoslovakia —
“I am greatly obliged to you for your kindness in sending
me your interesting book on the Aryanisation of India. I
agree with you on most points, especially in your criticisms of
Dr. Das*s Rigvedic India and of Mr. PargitePs theories in the
Appendix. Of course, there is still much in these questions
that must remain doubtful.” (20. 10. 1925)

Prof. M. Bloomfield, Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A,
—“Fine book.”

CP^lsfTRAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL LIBRARY
NEW DELHI

Catalogue No.

934*0 12/lXi t-16496,

Author — Dutt, Rripendra Kunar,

Title — Aryanisation of Ijadia.

borrower No. | Date of Issue j Date of Return fs

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